


It Which Was Stolen

by rawrxsushii



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!, 文豪ストレイドッグス | Bungou Stray Dogs
Genre: 1880, Dazai and Tsuna are siblings, Dazai is a Sawada, Dazai probably knows, Fyodor is always watching, Gen, No Beta, POV Multiple, Post-Canon KHR, Post-Fyodor | Cannibalism Arc (Bungou Stray Dogs), Pre-Gogol | Decay of Angels Arc (Bungou Stray Dogs), Tsuna was here for a job, Vongola and Port Mafia are enemies, We Die Like Men, Who Knows?, a short time frame between those two canon arcs, attempt at mystery, hes not here but he is, like the sociopathic russian rat that he is, not to find his dead brother, some bullshit power system combination, very light shipping, what was stolen?, who stole it?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:33:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 48,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23697787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rawrxsushii/pseuds/rawrxsushii
Summary: Dazai was taken from his family at a young age. Tsuna lost his brother at a young age. They never imagined fate would bring them together once the emblem without a name returns to Yokohama. War between the most powerful organizations of Japan was inevitable. Would Tsuna be able to retrieve it which was stolen before Yokohama pays the price for power?ORTsuna went to Yokohama to retrieve a stolen item, and ends up finding his long dead-missing brother by accident, and now he's a mess, Dazai's a mess, the entire city's about to be a mess.
Comments: 114
Kudos: 435





	1. Atsushi and the Missing Cat

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [ Forever is Composed of Nows ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13523733/chapters/31021389)
> 
> This is my first crossover fic ever so it'll be a little experimental. I put a lot, some, (no?) thought into it and hope everyone enjoys it too. I was inspired to write this one because I found this rare head canon in apparently one of the rarest xover's ever that I fell in love with. Dazai is Tsuna's older brother, like wow genius, I want 20. Unfortunately there was only 2 around. Now I make it 3 and turn the card into defense position!
> 
> I own no characters in this fic. I have only used them to share my love for both franchises, stories, and characters. Bungou Stray Dogs is owned by Kafka Asagiri/Sango Harukawa, while Katekyo Hitman Reborn! is owned by Amano Akira.

Something felt different about Yokohama today.

Atsushi can’t quite place his finger on it, but the wind blew as though it warned him of an incoming danger. It made the hair on the back of his hair stand, and leave a sense of foreboding he can’t quite explain.

It’s only been a few weeks since the Cannibal incident; and in Yokohama, the next big thing was certain to come up shortly after. Atsushi repeatedly wished that any previous problem they’ve faced would be the last, but somehow doing so just jinxes it, so he stopped. The moment he did, the world seemed to finally listen.

This was the longest time Atsushi has had a taste of peace and quiet, and it was beginning to make him anxious.

He supposed the lack of action was also because both special ability organizations in Yokohama decided to continue honoring its ceasefire. They kept out of each other’s way and turned away from the other’s radar. Still, regardless of how big Yokohama was, both the Agency members and the Port Mafia managed to find each other.

It made the city feel a lot smaller than when Atsushi first arrived here. His primary offender was Akutagawa, who he wasn’t sure was stalking him or something. He’d bumped into him a couple of times in the shopping district. Atsushi would always ignore him though. Akutagawa also perfectly hid his irritation as he walked the opposite direction.

 _I’ll kill you in six months_.

A month was nearing to a close, and Atsushi still hadn’t achieved anything worthwhile that will aid him in winning against Akutagawa. He’d already asked Kunikida to train him in close combat, but he had a hard time following through with all the errands he had to run in the agency.

Still, he wasn’t worried about himself that much, because he wanted to use this chance to not only improve but to help Akutagawa. In exchange for accepting Akutagawa’s promise, Atsushi made him promise to not kill anyone within that time period.

Akutagawa surprisingly accepted it without hesitation. Reports of the Black Hellhound’s handiwork in any alleged Port Mafia attacks ceased after that day. Akutagawa didn’t show the struggle on his face, but Atsushi knew he was having a hard time. Akutagawa was a killer, and he was trying to make him into a good person.

A mafia that doesn’t kill.

It seemed like a pipe dream, but Atsushi knew it could be done. Dazai did it. Kyoka did it. Akutagawa could too, just as long as he had the right motivation. Once, it may have been Dazai, but now Akutagawa’s main driving force was his anger and hatred for Atsushi. If Atsushi can make Akutagawa realize that his view of strength was a dangerous one and change him, then he’d be able to move on from his own demons as well.

Amidst his thoughts, Atsushi’s phone buzzed to show a message from Kyoka. It was short, simple, and direct to the point. _I’ve found one near a trashcan in the park, and another climbing a tree. Did you find the last one?_

Atsushi chuckled at how fast Kyoka managed to find their targets, and typed in an unfortunate response. No, he still didn’t find the last kitten.

Earlier today an old lady came to the Agency to help look for three kittens she accidentally lost two days ago. The police found her inquiry foolish so they sent her their way instead. Ranpo wasn’t interested in it, calling it below his paygrade, while the others didn’t seem as interested to do the charity work. Still, Kunikida wasn’t heartless and threw the case on Atsushi’s lap when the latter’s ears figuratively twitched upon the mention of cats.

It wasn’t a mystery to the Agency that Atsushi _adored_ cats. It was weird to like cats, when he himself was sort of like a gigantic cat too, given his ability, but no one seemed to question nor tease him about it (except Dazai). Kyoka just volunteered to help and yet she was more successful at this than him.

Atsushi sighed. “So much for being the senior member.”

He asked around town in case they’d spotted a cat of a certain coat and size. Some were helpful enough and kind enough to deny or point him to where they thought they saw it, while others just downright ignored him and told him to stop bothering them. People can be really rude sometimes.

His biggest clue came from a middle school aged girl which pointed him towards an alley where she swore she saw the kitten being fed by a young man. Atsushi immediately ran towards it, and spotted the young man she described.

He had spiky brown hair, and looked roughly the same age as Atsushi. He was crouched down in front of a cardboard box with an outstretched hand. For a split second, Atsushi spotted a small black paw trying to claw at the other's hand.

He found the last kitten!

“Uhm… Excuse me?” Atsushi said, and the brunette looked up at him with wide amber colored eyes. Atsushi was thrown back for a while, not quite expecting the person to look a lot younger than he did. “Is that cat a stray?”

The person shrugged. “Probably. It stole my sashimi so I figured it was hungry. I followed it back here to give it more. Why?”

Atsushi raised the picture given by the old lady where the black kitten was a part of, and the other person gaped. “Oh! How lucky. I’ve been trying to get him out since earlier but it’s too afraid.”

 _How kind…_ Atsushi thought. “I can try getting it out,” he said and slipped beside the other man and reached out for the kitten.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were –” Atsushi immediately pulled his hand back when the cat’s claws dug themselves unto his skin. The feline hissed. “Are you alright?”

Atsushi winced at the slight sting left behind by the claws. It started to bleed a little, but Atsushi just calmly tried to repair it with weretiger’s healing. Before he could however, the brunette had already fished a white handkerchief from his pocket and wrapped it around Atsushi’s arm.

“Uh… thanks?” Atsushi said, unsure. “You didn’t have to do that though, I can heal myself.”

The other shook their head. “It’s alright, it was my fault you got scratched. I should have warned you earlier that it was going to defend itself.” He raised his arms to show some of the claw marks he’d sustained compared to Atsushi and chuckled, “If you want to take him back then I think you have to befriend it first.”

Atsushi could only stare at the other boy in awe. The marks on the other’s arms didn’t look that deep to be infected but the amount of scratches still worried him. “I can get it more food then,” he offered. “Then I’ll buy you some tuna too since you fed it all yours.”

The boy’s eyes widened. “There’s – n – no need of that! I gave it away on my own, you don’t have to pay for anything!”

“It’s alright,” Atsushi said, insistent. “It’s my job to find it, and it ended up causing you trouble. Think of it as a thank you gift, _for free_.”

The boy stared at him for a while, before conceding. “Alright, I can stay here and watch. The sushi store I was eating at should be a few stores down. It has a cute fish streamer.”

“Okay,” Atsushi nodded. “I’ll be quick. I’ll try and find something to clean and patch your arms too.”

The brunette blushed and protested against the idea, but Atsushi waved him off. Atsushi was going to buy him something to clean those wounds regardless of what he said anyway.

It didn’t take Atsushi that long to gather all the things he needed. When he returned to the alleyway the brunette had his back against the wall and was dragging around a stick in front of the kitten. He managed to get the cat out with the enticing make shift toy. The cat stared at the stick with wide blown out eyes. It pressed itself lower unto the ground and pounced at the stick.

Atsushi’s eyes sparkled at the adorable thing. “You’ve made progress!” he cheered, startling both the kitten and the other man. The kitten immediately scrambled back inside its box, and the other man laughed.

“There goes the progress.”

“I – I messed up!” Atsushi cried.

“No way, it’s just not used to us both. I had to sit really still so it didn’t even notice me.”

Atsushi sat beside him and threw one sashimi towards the kitten as a start. Its black coat slowly popped under the box but didn’t crawl out. Instead, the kitten extended its claws to try and reach it. Atsushi chuckled at the kitten’s futile attempt and pushed the tuna slice a little bit closer to the kitten’s reach. The kitten stayed silent for a while after that.

Atsushi turned to the brown haired man, and said, “Oh right, I bought some alcohol and band aids! I can clean them while we wait for it to ask for another slice.”

“I’m fine really,” the other insisted. “You really don’t need to that – uh…”

“Atsushi,” he said, “and yes I do. The kitten may be healthy, but we can’t be too sure.”

Without any other reason to give, the brown haired boy leaned back and let Atsushi lather his skin with rubbing alcohol. He hissed a little at the sudden burning sensation around the deeper cuts, but soon relaxed. Atsushi covered all the marks with multicolored Band-Aids that made the other boy laugh.

“Gokudera is going to be so worried about this. Probably would freak out if I tell him it’s from a kitten.”

“It was a brave kitten though.”

The boy laughed again. “Yes it was. I’m Tsuna, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you, Tsuna.”

“You too, Atsushi.”

The kitten meowed inside the box, obviously asking for more, and Tsuna threw another slice closer to the box. Almost immediately a paw shot out to grab it. “Well, it knows what we’re doing, but we still can’t convince it to come out.”

Atsushi looked around the alley, and stared far too long on the stack of cardboard boxes beside the cat’s hiding box. “Maybe… I can carry it back inside another box?”

Tsuna gaped at the idea. “That could work! But –” he stared at the decrepit cardboard in front of them “– I don’t think any of these will be of use. I’ll try and check over there.” Tsuna disappeared in a corner and came back shortly with a small cardboard box on hand. Atsushi noted how he barely made a noise as he walked despite the number of wet puddles on his path.

“Here we go! Now you can take it back to its owner.”

They decided to let the kitten get inside the box on its own by leaving a trail of sashimi from its hiding spot and into the new one. Patiently, they waited until the kitten peeked out from box, and munched on the slices one by one until it leapt inside.

Atsushi quickly closed the box’s lid and tried to ignore the kitten’s distressing cries from inside its temporary cage.

“That’s going to be hard,” Tsuna said, seemingly affected by the cat’s cries too.

“Yeah, but I can handle it, thank you for your help today. The uh – the last plastic is yours. New sashimi for you.” While Tsuna once again refused to take the food payment for his deeds, Atsushi’s phone buzzed. “That’s my cue. I’ll see you around.”  
  
Tsuna waved him off, and the former took the opposite direction as him, while Atsushi walked a little ways west to meet Kyoka.

She was seated on a bench with one kitten curled up on her lap, while the other lay on the ground, pawing at the tips of her Datejime. Kyoka waved at him and said, “That took you a while. I thought you liked cats.”

“I do… This one just didn’t like me.”

Kyoka chuckled and placed the remaining kittens inside the box. The kittens mewled affectionately at each other and rubbed their little heads in greeting. “Mission accomplished. We should return soon. Granny’s heart may not handle being apart from them any longer than this.”

Atsushi nodded in agreement, and quietly made their way back to the Agency. As they walked along the streets of Yokohama, Atsushi spotted a familiar brown colored hair wandering around the city with a confused frown on his face. “Tsuna?”

“Atsushi!” Tsuna sighed, relieved. “You have to help me.”

Atsushi and Kyoka gave each other a look, and Kyoka stepped forward. “What happened?”

Tsuna blushed at seeing Kyoka, either surprised by her initiative or the fact that she was with Atsushi. "I – I forgot how to go back to the hotel,” he coughed.

“You live in a hotel!?” Atsushi asked. Tsuna did not come off as the type to have the pockets to afford living lavishly. He paused. If Tsuna could afford to live in a hotel, then... Atsushi got conned into treating him to free sashimi?!

“I’m just staying in one,” Tsuna said, embarrassed. "Do you… know where Sorachi hotel is? I remember it being around here, but… I haven’t found it yet.”

Atsushi shook his head. “Sorry, I only just started living here too.”

“It’s four streets north, across the seventh building on your left, and right in front of the second stoplight,” Kyoka said almost a little too mechanically.

Tsuna stared in awe at Kyoka, who only returned the former's gaze. Tsuna's face turned tomato red.

“Ahh, Kyoka-chan knows everything about Yokohama,” Atsushi explained. “She’s memorized maps, so she’s great with directions.”

“Really?”

Kyoka nodded. “We can take you there if you're lost.”

“I - I really shouldn't bother the two of you!” Tsuna once again refused, but Kyoka grabbed his wrist and led the way leaving the former without much choice but to follow. Atsushi stuck close to them with an amused smile on his face. “I don’t know how to repay you...” he said towards Atsushi.

Atsushi shook his head, “You don’t have to pay us anything. We want to help.”

Kyoka’s eyes on the other hand gleamed greedily. “Crepe. I want crepe." She then pointed to the stand across the street, and Tsuna bought her the largest one as gratitude.

Atsushi looked inside his coin purse and wept at the difference between his miserable coins and the bills Tsuna pulled out of his pocket.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alternatively titled: Atsushi had no idea he met the strongest and most powerful Mafia boss of the 21st century.
> 
> Mostly a set-up chapter so not much has happened. I also just wanted soft Atsushi and soft Tsuna to meet before shit goes down. Kyoka is so smart, I love her. She deserves all the crepes.
> 
> *Hotel Sorachi literally means Hotel "Sky" (sora) and "Earth" (chi)


	2. Dazai and the Silver Haired Tourist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dazai meets a certain hot-headed young man in a crosswalk. His instincts tells him the man was no ordinary summer tourist in Yokohama.

Osamu skipped on the his stepas he walked. Today was a very good day! He just collected a new set of coupons that would save his pockets for the next couple of weeks.

He had a few single purchase discounts from convenience stores, some free food vouchers, and other service type coupons. It was practically a gold mine.

Osamu liked to think he wasn't cheapskate, but it didn’t hurt to be a smart consumer from time to time. And summer time was the best time.

Tourists flood Yokohama during the summer and small business make bank by promoting their sales with freebies. One would think that after all the destruction that passed over Yokohama these past few months, tourists would be more wary and not crowd in. Fortunately or unfortunately, that didn't stop anyone at all. 

Truly! Humans were daring at their core, yearning for danger as opposed to the comforts of normal living.

Osamu shared their enthusiasm for adventure and applaused bravery. Entering Yokohama at this time was practically suicide. It was known only to a few, but Fyodor had almost ran the city to the ground by masterfully manipulating the city's greatest powers into a battle royale. 

He almost succeeded. Too bad Osamu was already prepared for a threat like him. The new Double Black worked well, and he also figured out Fyodor's plan and captured the bastard. However, even though he's locked in a high security prison, Osamu can't help feeling as though this wasn't over. 

Fyodor's dirty stubby paws wouldn't accept a loss like that. Fyodor was planning, or already planned, for something bigger than the Cannibal fiasco. Osamu knew that for certain because that was exactly what he would do if their situations were reversed. It was only a matter of time before the rats invaded the city again.

Still! The thought of a uncertain future did not cripple Osamu's usual fervor. 

Of course Fyodor wouldn’t rot in jail silently. The man was too smart for his own good to accept defeat as gracefully as that. However, if Osamu let the rats constant gnawing at his mind affect him, then he would have lost the war before it even began.

Osamu passed by a group of beautiful young ladies huddled around a map and grabbed one of their hands. “Truly it must be fate that I landed my eyes on you, my lady,” he said with a playful flirty tone that made the girls grimace. “It would be an absolute honor to commit double suicide with you! Oh goddess of beauty and grace that has visited me from far away just to take me from my mortal co –”

He was slapped twice, on both cheeks, then kicked to curb. They called him a pervert then left with a whisk of their hairs. Osamu picked himself up with a rejected pout. His attempt to court death was denied once again. He wasn’t worried though. One of these days he would be granted a swift and beautiful death, one without pain that he’s wished for so long.

He thought about throwing himself off into the sea and drown himself again, but that venture had been thwarted more times than he could count. First by Atsushi, then by Ranpo _and_ Atsushi. He doubted the third would be the charm. Atsushi has always, somehow, caught him in the act of suicide and saved his life more times than he can count.

Osamu exited from the small city park and into the bustling streets where a number of cars passed along. With the increase of tourists, there were also quite an increase in automobiles around. The suicidal maniac hummed. Had he tried death by road kill yet?

Osamu shuddered. “No, no! That sounds painful.” The thought of his guts disgustingly splattered on the ground was not pretty, nor peaceful. That form of suicide must not happen. While he patiently waited for the crosswalk to turn green, Osamu turned his attention towards a commotion to his left.

A silver haired man grabbed unsuspecting passersby’s by their shoulders and screamed for answers. It scared half of them away, if not most. The man snarled, obviously impatient, when a number of them could only stutter an apology for not knowing anything.

“ _Oh_? Sounds like trouble my way.”

The young man wore an open black zip-up jacket on top of a blue colored long sleeved shirt. He had quite a number of accessories around his wrist and fingers that screamed delinquent to many. Osamu counted at least seven rings on both hands. Four skull shaped rings on the right, and two silver ones on the left. He also wore an intricate red crystal belt-buckle around his hip. It was a very unique design. Probably designer if not custom made, either way it meant the man had deep pockets.

The buckle had some words etched on its face, but Osamu couldn’t read it before his attention was called.

“You!”

Osamu pointed at himself, while the other pedestrians quickly scrambled away. “You seen someone with spikey brown hair, about this tall –” he said while miming his hands to indicating their height “–and has big brown eyes round here?”

“I probably did?” Osamu shrugged. “I’ve been walking all day collecting these.” He raised the coupons he’d gathered and continued, “If he’s missing then maybe he passed by some of the lovely ladies giving these out around too!”

The silver haired male snarled and shoved the them away. Osamu disappointingly watched the coupons scatter in the wind. “I’m not playing games with you fucking dipshit! This is important so have you or have you not!?”

Osamu was a little surprised the boy didn’t just move and figured he’d be honest this time now. “No, I haven’t.”

The man glared at him and bumped his shoulder angrily as he stomped away. There was that short fuse.

Osamu smiled, rather amused with the other’s patience. It reminded him of a certain someone that definitely did not go by the name Chuuya Nakahara. Dazai glanced at his coupons on the floor then at the young man, who just forced himself onto a lovely couple.

Osamu decided on impulse. “Hey, octopus-head!”

The silver haired man froze, his face twitching in obvious annoyance. Osamu figured it wasn’t the first time he'd been called that nickname. “I DON’T HAVE AN OCTOPUS HEAD! THAT’S _GOKUDERA_ TO YOU!”

“Well, _Gokudera_ -kun,” Osamu sang. “I’d like to offer my hand to help locating your friend. I’ve got a good eye, and I can tell you’re not from Yokohama. It’d be a shame if you got lost too while looking for him right?”

Osamu expected Gokudera to shout at him in another fit of bashful rage, but to his surprise the latter just looked at him with wide eyes. For a split second, the younger man’s demeanor changed. To the untrained eye it would be easy to miss, but Osamu had been trained to pick up small slip up like this for years.

“How did you know I’m not from here?” Gokudera asked with a slight edge in his voice. It sounded a little nervous and tad skeptical.

Osamu chuckled, trying to keep them friendly. “I didn’t. I guessed. Now you just proved I’m right!"

“Don’t fuck with me old man." 

Osamu frowned. He wasn’t _that_ old. “Rude!” He raised a limp arm to his forehead. “Here I was offering to help and you ridicule my God given good looks.”

“God-given looks!?" Gokudera scoffed. "You have shitty mop-hair for brains!”

“Owwwowow!” Osamu clutched his heart. “My handsome pride.”

“Screw you, you crazy mop-head,” Gokudera said. “I don’t need you help to find the Tenth! I’ll find him myself!” The man stormed across the street, and Osamu waved him off, only dropping his smile when the former disappeared.

“Find the… tenth? Now who could that be?”

* * *

Osamu didn’t believe in coincidences, but for today, he’d gladly make an exception.

He saw Gokudera again when he purchased a buy one, get one free ice cream coupon inside a convenience store. Gokudera’s hot headed nature seemed to have sparked the flame of another’s and was currently butting heads with a group of seven middle-aged men. Osamu recognized them as one of the lesser gangs in Kanagawa who were known for their golden chains and watches. He couldn’t remember their name specifically, but that’s only because no one bothered to pay mind to their petty crimes and faux display of strength.

Cowering behind the young man were the same group of ladies he tried to hit on earlier. Osamu popped a popsicle in his mouth as he watched. Always a party with this guy, huh?

“Leave them alone you perverted fucks,” Gokudera said while he shoved a man wearing a hideous black floral shirt. “They said no.”

The large man chuckled. “Playing hero in our city, boy? You should know that this is our turf and in our turf, what we say goes.”

Gokudera clicked his tongue. “So you’re telling me you’re part _that_ mafia?”

 _That_ mafia sounded very specific. Even if there were dozens of smaller gangs and groups operating in Yokohama, there’s only one mafia in town that had that big a reputation. Gokudera surely didnt mean them, could he?

The group glanced among each other, and the man in black floral print chuckled. “Yeah we are, does that make you piss your pants kid?” Gokudera looked unimpressed, but floral print mistook it as fear. "That’s right, it should. We’re the most powerful group in Yokohama, so scoot over your wannabee hero ass unless you want to get hurt.”

He reached for the girl on Gokudera's right, but had his wrist grabed instead "Too bad, Floral's. I know what mafia's like, and you wouldn't last a day in it.”

Gokudera's ringed fist kissed the man’s jaw, and sent the latter crashing into a trash bin.

The girls shrieked at Gokudera's barbaric actions and ran away. Floral's friends could only stare in equal shock as their supposed leader didn’t stand from the hit. Gokudera shook his hand, seemingly more irritated by the situation rather than the throbbing pain on his fingers. “He took that like a bitch, huh?”

“You fucking brat,” snarled one of Floral's men. He threw an arm towards Gokudera, who ducked under it, and quickly struck him down with heavy blow behind the neck.

Osamu whistled. His aggressiveness and delinquent image just wasn’t for show was it?

Gokudera ground his heel on the man’s head and pulled out a cigarette stick which miraculously sparked aflame after he brushed a ring over it. “I really shouldn’t be making a scene, but you fucks just gone and riled me up. Hitting on girls half your age? You pigs disgust me.”

Two burly men on his left ran for him with fists up. Gokudera dodged, barely lifting an arm to retaliate. One took a knee to the stomach while the other got kicked to a wall. “If you really are mafia, I’m suddenly really fucking embarrassed for Yokohama,” he bantered while the last three men pulled out guns and knives.

He grinned, welcoming the challenge. "Alright, if that's what you idiots want to do. Let's dance."

Osamu slipped to the side, staying as far away as he can from the commotion but not quite far enough to miss the show. His instincts told him that there was something left unsaid by this silver haired tourist that made him so capable. He wanted to know what that was. 

Then shots were fired.

Civilians ducked, screaming as they panicked, while others dropped to the ground with their eyes shut. Screams echoed all over the street as they ran, scrambling for their phones to call the authorities.

Gokudera subdued the nearest gun man with practiced ease. He approached low, his arms tucked close to his chest then jabbed under the man’s chin. The gunner dropped his gun and Gokudera dismantled without missing a beat. He chucked the free magazine towards another approaching grunt with a knife. It smacked him directly on the forehead, which disoriented him enough for Gokudera to swipe low and knock him out with two strong punches on the nose. He kicked the blade away before the falled could retrieve it.

“DON’T MOVE!” yelled the last one standing as he pressed the cold barrel of a pistol on Gokudera’s head. “You think you can just make an enemy out of us? The Golden Link?! You’re just a kid!”

Osamu made a diagusted face, and Gokudera broke character at the ridiculous name. “ _Golden_ –? I fucking called it! You shits are losers!”

“I’M GOING TO KILL YOU, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!”

Suddenly an explosion blew up between Gokudera and last punk. A black cloud spread out around them and a gunshot was fired. The bullet grazed the pole beside Osamu, who glanced at it, completely undeterred with how close to death seemed to stare at him.

After nothing but complete silence within the cloud, Gokudera finally emerged, whipping his hands to clear out the smoke, victorious from the fight. 

“Fuck that almost hit me," he cursed aloud while looking around. He noticed that his little fight has gained a few eyes and cameras trained on him, then quickly raised his collar. Clearly, this man had something to hide.

Osamu watched as the careful man slipped something out from his pocket. Osamu wished it had something to do with an Ability. It's rarely not these days. 

Gokudera threw sparking sticks into the air, and Osamu gasped. _Dynamites_. “EVERYONE FIND COVER!” he shouted on instinct, and people dropped as explosions rang all over the street.

Black clouds masked Gokudera’s escape, and Osamu tried to follow him. Whoever or whatever this man's intentions in Yokohama were, it was definitely aligned with Port Mafia's, or, at the very least, opposed to theirs. 

Just as he followed the otjers disappearing figure Osamu took note of the trajectory of each bomb. They were thrown high enough to avoid any civilian or establishment. Gokudera didn't wish anyone harm. That was unexpected from any and all enemies of Port Mafia he's met.

Gokudera wasn't an Ability user, but he wasn't a civilian either. So... who was he?

Without meaning to, the imaginary rat in his brain gnawed at him to expect the worst. Was this it? Fyodor's next move?

Osamu held onto the possibility but felt that something about it was off. Fyodor was careful and meticulous. His next attack would come from a totally unexpected vantage point, not something as easily discovered like this. 

Fyodor also wouldn't hire a soul like Gokudera's who would chose to intervene with public harassment _and_ think about collateral.

Gokudera could’ve killed those men, and used the civilians as his means to escape, but didn't. He disarmed them, dealt with them, and ensured no one was injured while he diffused the situation. Fyodor didn’t hire morally good people to be his pawns, it just didn't make sense.

Before Osamu could slip out and rethink the mysterious bomber's existence, a live dynamite shot towards his direction. Osamu tried to doge it but a smaller stick blew up beside him, knocking him off his feet and was pushed directly into Gokudera’s arms, then straight into a wall.

“ _Who the fuck are you?_ ” 

Osamu raised his hands and put on a smile as four sticks of live explosives hovered dangerously close to his neck. “Now, now, there’s no need to get violent. You were doing so well back there.”

“Nu-uh, try again, you smiling fuck.” Gokudera pressed the sticks closer to Osamu neck, and its a miracle they haven't exploded yet. “Have you been following me? Who the _fuck_ are you? Are _you_ Mafia?”

Osamu eyes narrowed. He’s asking him too? What happened to looking for this Tenth person? Did he just miraculously forget about that, or was that a front to bring them out? It was an unorthodox play, but if he managed to lure Osamu out, a retired Mafioso, it meant Gokudera knew what he was doing.

“If I say yes, would you kill me?”

Gokudera kept his eyes on him for a moment, then pushed the burning end of one of the dynamites on Osamu's neck, charring the cloth around the latters neck black. “Depends. Why were you watching me?”

“Just interested.”

Gokudera pressed the more dynamites into Osamu's throat, the heat searing through them. Osamu never thought about dying this way and honestly found it quite exhilirating.

Osamu kept a steady gaze on the silver head teen, showing neither fear nor regret. As Gokudera equaled his gaze silent fury, Osamu gripped the formers wrist as though to say something. 

Gokudera cursed in a foreign tongue - _Italian maybe? -_ and dropped him to the ground. With a flick of his wrists, the dynamites were stashed away; barely visible behind his pants and clothes.

“Port or not, stay out of our way. This is _your_ city. Neither of us want it gone because you couldn’t sit still. That’s your final warning.”

Osamu narrowed his eyes. That was an odd. Why would he say that?

“You probably won’t believe me when I say it but –” Osamu managed to say with a raspy cough. “I’m not with them.”

They kept each other’s eyes, gauging each other, until Gokudera growled. “You're right, I don’t. There’s not a single strand of hair I trust on your fucking head.” He then ran across the street and disappeared inside an alley just as the police cars arrived.

Osamu also made his escape to avoid being interrogated. The agency's had enough trouble enough as it is. He would’ve followed Gokudera to get more answers but Osamu knew he would be at a disadvantage. Gokudera didn’t have an Ability, and his fighting skills were at least two bars higher than his own. Osamu would definitely lose in a fight against him. Regardless, Osamu was never a stickler for odds. 

He figured that as a tourist of his caliber, judging by his choice of clothing brands, Gokudera stayed in one of the hotels in the immediate area. There was a strip of hotels about fifteen minutes away from their current location, and his mystery man just ran into the very same direction. He had no intention of ambushing Gokudera. Osamu just wanted more concrete information than mere speculation.

The first thing he was certain off was that Gokudera was not one of Fyodor's; and second, his group were here in secret. Osamu thought back on this ‘Tenth’ person the kid was looking for. Initially he thought it was a name, but thinking back on Gokudera’s wariness towards Port Mafia, Osamu had a feeling ‘Tenth’ was a title. Probably inherited going by the number. Which begged the question, the tenth what?

While buried in his thoughts, Osamu managed to spot a familiar set of hair and clothes walking along the same strip of hotels he was. They were talking with third head that fit the description of this Tenth Gokudera was searching for.

Osamu grinned. _Lucky_.

“Aaaaaatsushi!” Osamu moaned as he wrapped a heavy arm around his favorite weretiger.

“D – DAZAI-SAN!” Atsushi yelled, surprised, while he fumbled with a box that meowed in his arms. “Please don’t just jump on people like that!” 

Osamu raised an apologetic hand and turned to greet Kyoka. “What are you two doing out near hotels hm? Looking for a place to spend the night together?” The suggestive tone caused Atsushi to grow red and stutter out a hasty explanation. 

“W – we – we were helping Tsuna find his hotel!”

Osamu blinked. A distant, long forgotten memory apppearing in his mind as the name played out. He hadn’t heard a name similar to his in a long time. “Helping out a tourist huh? Well it’s good that you found them to guide you right Tsuna –!” Osamu's voice got caught in his throat as he stared at a face he'd never thought he’d ever see again.

A similar face that looked at him with the same sense of disbelief. “Osamu _nii san…?_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know we're just in the second chapter but I really liked this one. I've never written for both fandoms before so I'm a little unsure about characterization, still, I enjoyed writing the interaction between Dazai and Gokudera. The plot thickens now that Tsuna is in the mix! 
> 
> I havent decided on whether to make the update schedule once or twice a week. I have a couple of chapters ready but I don't know. What do you guys think? (of the posting sched and the fic atm) I'd love to hear them.


	3. Gokudera and the Missing Sawada

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gokudera was angry, and then he wasn't. It's not everyday you discover that the man you've devoted your life to actually had a long-lost brother. He was going to get to the bottom of this.

“ _Nii-san!?_ ” Hayato shouted in unison with a white haired man that was just as surprised as he was with the honorific Tenth just used. The white haired boy, very briefly, along with his smaller companion, a girl in a red kimono stared at him, confused by his sudden inclusion.

“D – Dazai san has a brother?!” the white haired boy said, and the mop haired bastard from earlier took a staggered step back, seemingly taken aback by Tenth’s face.

Hayato grit his teeth.

The bastard told him he wasn’t Port Mafia, and he believed him. He may have been crazy, barely flinching at the threat of bombs so close to his neck, but Gokudera knew a liar from an honest man, and the bastard wasn't lying. 

However, that didn't mean the fuck could be trusted. His instincts told him that the man was trouble, and he was _fucking_ right.

The man tried to follow him to their hotel even after he threathened him to stay the fuck away. And now, he's found the Boss! Who also _apparently_ turned out to be his younger brother. He didn't even know whow that could be possible. Tsuna and Mama never mentioned there being an older Sawada.

Hell, not even Iemitsu has breathed a word of a second Sawada.

“Oi, oi! Tenth, what do you mean by nii-san? You can’t be serious? This bastard looks and acts nothing like you!”

Tenth looked at him with confused brown eyes, a look he hadn’t seen in the young mafia boss in years. It was like he reverted back to his cowardly fourteen year old self who barely understood the crazy events happening around him. Only this time, he wasn’t just confused and terrified, Tenth was unnerved down to his core.

“H – he –” the young boss shook. “He’s my brother, Osamu Sawada…”

Hayato shot a look at this Osamu guy and tried to find any sort of resemblance between them. Either he was blind, or his suspicions about the bastard blinded his ability to pick up on small similarities between them, but Hayato really couldn’t see what he didn’t the first time. There was nothing about this Osamu guy that screamed Sawada to him.

“Are… are you sure?”

“Please, Gokudera. You have to believe me. I _know_ he’s my brother.”

 _Bullshit_ , was all Hayato could think about. He couldn’t say it aloud though. There was no way he would disrespect him like that, nor second guess his beloved Tenth's intuition. However his own hard-headed beliefs wanted Tenth to be oh so wrong, even if just this once. 

When he felt tears dampen his shirt, Hayato just lost it. Own beliefs be damned, Tsuna betterbe fucking right. 

“THAT’S IT YOU FUCKING, BASTARD,” he grabbed Osamu by the collar and stuck a dynamite he’d meant to hurt the former with earlier back on his throat. Fuck all if he was the Boss’ brother or not, no one made the Tenth feel bad and got away with it. “GIVE ME ONE GOOD REASON I DON’T BLOW YOU UP IN THIS GOD DAMN STREET!”

“Gokudera!” 

“YOU HAD THE FUCKING AUDACITY TO MAKE TENTH, CRY!” he screamed, unconsciously ignoring Tsuna's voice. “I’M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU–”

Osamu’s eyes snapped towards him for a second, and Hayato's grip faltered. The brunette was as white as a sheet. His mouth left open in shock while his eyes hid a storm of conflicting emotions.

Hayato didn’t know why the bastard was acting this way, but the fact that he was this thrown off meant Tenth was telling the truth. The bastard really was the boss’ older brother. Hayato grit his teeth, unable to accept it even though the truth stared at him from both sides.

Osamu eyes fell back to the Tenth. His lips quivered and his tongue darted around in his mouth to articulate a single letter but nothing of the sort came out. He only managed a strangled breath that sounded more like a whine, unable to muster out a word to explain himself.

“You bitch,” Hayato hissed. “If you don’t say anything soon I’ll _fucking_ –!” A small blade pressed unto his side, hidden under the sleeve of the little's girl kimono. The Tanto was aimed straight into a major organ, and if Gokudera dared move, he would be dead on the spot.

Her eyes, which held no malice, looked up at him, and Hayato clicked his tongue. He knew what she was. His instincts knew those eyes right away. _A killer's eyes_.

All of a sudden, he managed to put a name to the sweet angelic face – Kyoka Izumi. Port Mafia assassin with the alias and ability called Demon Snow. 35 confirmed kills, not a single failed mission.This girl was dangerous, _very_ dangerous. How the hell is Osamu related to her?

_I’m not Port Mafia, my ass._

Hayato shoved Osamu back to his white haired friend and raised his hands in quiet surrender. The young assassin retracted her blade in one swift move. 

Hayato eyes narrowed into slits at their party, dread crawling up his back as he did. He didn’t recognize the other two from their initial Intel. Either Port Mafia had dangerous players they didn't know about, or they were new recruits they didn’t know about. Regardless of which, Gokudera was certain of one thing –Tenth’s alleged brother was Port Mafia.

As much as Hayato wanted to fight them here and now, he needed to ensure the Tenth's safety and wel-being safety. He knew that Tsuna could fend for himself, but he wasn’t exactly at the best state either. He doubted that even under the influence of the Dying Will, Tenth wouldn’t be able to fight in his peak. 

“We’re leaving.”

“No! I have to know why he –”

“He’s not going to answer you,” Gokudera bluntly said, and the Tenth frowned. Innately, he knew that too but as always the young boss held hope close to his chest.

"I know that, but I have to try. For his and my sake."

As much as Hayato wanted to share his optimism, he was certain that whatever the older Sawada was hiding, it was too much to talk about now. 

Hayato knew that because he's seen the man’s eyes, they were afraid of this. The man was a coward, and Hayato held no respect for people that run away. He was a coward before too, and Gokudera hated that part of himself. 

Osamu's cowardice reminded him so much of his own that it pissed Gokudera off more than it should.

Hayato grumbled, wanting to argue with his Tenth's wished, but conceded in the end. It was what Tsuna wanted. "By your order, Tenth.”

Tsuna sent him a gracious smile and very meekly made his way towards the older Sawada. He fiddled with his hands, unsure of what to do with them, and kept his shoulders close to his body. “Nii-san?”

Osamu flinched and simply stared at Tenth’s eyes.

“Why didn’t you come home? I – I won’t be mad I promise.”

Osamu’s lips quivered, not uttering a single sound. Still running away like a coward. Hayato's fist shook.

“You remember me don’t you? I’m your brother. Tsuna –”

“–yoshi,” Osamu finished. “Your name’s Tsunayoshi Sawada.”

For a brief moment, Tenth’s eyes lit up. “That’s right! I –”

“You shouldn’t be here.”

Tenth took a sharp breath, taken aback by the only meaningful thing Osamu managed to say aloud.

“What the fuck are you on, dude?!” Hayato snapped. He raised an arm to knock the bastard’s teeth out but Tenth grabbed his wrist mid swing. His brows now furrowed a little bit more in sustained anger.

Tenth waited for Osamu to elaborate before sighing, like he’d just concluded something for himself. “I see… I didn’t come here to look for you, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

Osamu frowned.

“I’m just as surprised as you are, and to be honest I don’t know what to feel either. I’m only here for a job. I didn't mean to suddenly come back into your life." Tenth looked at both Atsushi and Kyoka as though he just pieced something together by himself. 

"If youre not ready to talk, I can wait,” Tenth mumbled, and Osamu shook his head. Tsuna's shoulder’s flinched. “O – Or not… If you don’t want to talk at all, that's fine too. I’m sure you had your reasons. I won’t ask. Just, if that's what you decide to in the end, can you do me a favor Osamu-nii? Don’t look for me.”

Osamu’s breath hitched.

“You have wonderful friends here. If you’ve found a new family in them, then who am I break it? You can forget today. I’ll – I’ll do my best to do the same.”

"Tsuna, I’m really–” 

“It’s alright nii-san,” Tenth smiled while his hair covered the truth laid bare by his eyes. “You don’t have to explain yourself. We both need time to sort things out. Let’s go, Gokudera.”

Hayato frowned. Even though he hated everything about Osamu for, one hurting Tenth, and two, being an absolute lying piece of shit, he suddenly felt sorry for him. Tenth just dismissed their fateful, or rather accidental, reunion like it was nothing. It also didn’t help that Tenth so quickly decided that they should just forget ever meeting at all, and continue living their separate lives.

That didn’t sound like the Tenth who prioritized family above all at all. Regardless of how much Hayato hated the bastard, he was the boss’ brother.

“Tenth –?” He bit his tongue as soon as Tsuna sent him a look. His decision, regardless of how painful it was for him, was for the good and safety of his older brother. They were in Yokohama for business. If Osamu got involved in that, Tenth would never forgive himself.

Everything felt too unfair. Not only were they presented with horrible odds in this town, now Tenth had to sacrifice his own well-being for the sake of others. It was too cruel!

"Wait, Tsuna!” The white haired boy spoke up. “If Dazai-san really is your brother, shouldn’t you give him time too? You can’t just decide for him! He’s hurting too can’t you see?” Osamu closed his eyes, silently agreeing with his friend. “We don’t even know where to find you."

Tenth kept his back turned. He didn’t want them to see how much he’s hurting on the inside. Hayato, as a right hand would, stepped in for him instead, “We’ll find you.”

“I’m sorry Atsushi. Today was really fun though, thank you."

As Tenth walked ahead, Hayato glared at Osamu, who looked at him with apologetic eyes. "If you even step within a meter away of him," he hissed. "I _will_ kill you."

* * *

Yamamato was pacing in the hotel room when they returned, absolutely frantic when he found Tenth was missing, and neither he nor Hayato were answering his calls. “Where have you been?! I’ve been calling for hours!”

Hayato clicked his tongue. “Battery ran out and Tenth –”

“I forgot to check my messages, sorry,” the Boss said almost like a whisper. “I got lost on a food run, and now I’m tired. You two don’t mind me resting a bit right?”

Yamamoto tried to press his obvious discomfort, but Hayato stepped in. “If you ever need us Tenth just holler!” His smile immediately slipped when Tsuna entered his room, then hissed at Yamamoto, “Learn to read the atmosphere baseball-freak.”

“Sorry?” the other said, confounded. “Did something happen out there?”

Hayato sighed as he flopped unto the sofa. "Yeah. Some pretty heavy stuff, even for me.”

"What stuff?"

"Stuff."

"Normally I’d accept that, but something’s wrong," Yamamoto said with certainty. "We agreed to be transparent. I couldn’t reach _any_ of you for hours, I was worried! Then you come back, and he’s a mess. Is it mission related?"

"No, it’s got nothing to do with the mission," Hayato growled. “But I’m serious about it being heavy, so drop it. We don't talk about it until Tenth’s ready."

Yamamoto slouched on his seat. "Fine. I just can’t help it, it’s been a while since we’ve seen him like that. We're his subordinates, but we're also his friends. I'm just worried about him."

"Me too."

"So..." Yamamoto started amidst the silence growing between them. "What did you find?"

“ _Seriously?_ Now?”

"We're passing time. Unless you want me to keep asking about what happened with Tsuna…”

“Fuck, _fine_! You want a debriefing? Fine, let’s do a fucking debrief. Always got to be the studious and dependable one…” he grumbled, while Yamamoto laughed at the fueled compliment. “You noticed those black towers in the middle of the city right?”

Yamamoto nodded. “Mori Corporation owns that building. I think they’re a pharmaceutical.”

“Doesn’t matter, they’re a shell company,” he said with a dismissive wave. “That’s their headquarters. They mostly do their dealings on the port though, which is really no surprise given their name. We do as much as breathe in that direction, we're done for."

"Did you though? Breathe in that direction?"

"Fuck no, I’m sitting in front of you right? Means I did a damn good job.”

"Can’t be too sure,” Yamamoto shrugged. “This wouldn’t be the first time you messed up espionage."

Damn this rain bastard. "I did my job alright? Stop yanking my dick.” Yamamoto laughed at his vulgarity, but did not, in fact stop giving him that look that still pestered him for something he did wrong. Hayato clicked his tongue. That rain-bastard got him read like a goddamn book it’s getting annoying.

“Okay, maybe not as perfectly as _you_ would have wanted it,” he confessed. “We bumped into a Port assassin. That Demon Snow kid."

"With Tsuna?” Yamamoto’s eyes grew. “They already found out?”

Hayato shook his hands. “I don’t think she even knew who he was. She and her friend, some fella named Atsushi. Weird haircut. They were helping Tenth find his way back.”

“Are you sure it was her?"

"Damn sure." The bitch almost plunged a knife through his chest. He's lucky she didn't push it all the way and barely nicked his jacket. "The only thing I’m not sure about was that Atsushi guy or Osamu _Dazai,_ " he hissed out Osamu’s name. Bastard didn’t even keep his family name. “Never saw them in the files.”

"I don’t remember reading about them either. Civilians?"

Hayato scoffed. “Walking around with a prodigal killer? Doubt it. That Osamu was an asshole.”

"I’ll confirm with CEDEF. If they’re really Port Mafia then we may have to move bases in case they tailed you from behind."

Hayato doubted that, that thought would even cross his mind given Osamu’s state and his friends' apparent concern. However, they can’t be too careful with the enemy. As Yamamoto got in touch with CEDEF, Hayato finally let the situation sink it. Tenth had an older brother none of them knew about.

It felt so surreal to discover a family secret this big despite being part of said family for more than five years already. He was supposed to be the Tenth’s right hand man, and yet Tenth didn’t trust him enough to share this information. Maman and Iemitsu also kept this secret from everyone, so the question was... why?

Hayato met Tenth when they were fourteen. Osamu's name was never said nor dropped once in the household. He didn't even see a single framed photograph of the older Sawada in the many times he’d visited and slept over. It was like Osamu never existed, which obviously wasn't the case because he did now. Tenth remembered _and_ recognized him, albeit it was like staring at an apparition he never expected to ever see again.

Almost immediately, his mind spiraled into conspiracies of disowned sibling, an illegitimate child, or the more outlandish theory, an U.M.A. Hayato immediately dismissed those three. They were too crazy even for someone born into the most powerful Mafia family in the world.

His reconstructed his angle, and came up with an accident. This accident, whatever it was, made the family think he’d died. Hayato shook his head. If it were that simple, the Sawada’s wouldn’t just go and forget him. He knows Maman definitely wouldn’t and Tenth most certainly will not. The next plausible thing would be kidnapping, where Osamu was never found and assumed dead. However, even with those possibilities, how come they never talked about him?

Hayato’s eyes widened as a light bulb sparked over his head. “Yamamoto!"

Yamamoto looked at him funny while he talked on the phone, then made a loud noise of protest when Hayato snatched the device from him. "Hey! What are you–?!"

"WHOSE ON THE LINE?!"

"Gokudera-san?" Basil answered. "Where hast Yamamoto-san gone? I was just talking to him."

"Basil! Just the man I need. Look, I need you to do something very secret alright? Call it a personal inquiry. And you absolutely _cannot_ tell Iemitsu about this no matter what you read alright?"

Yamamoto mouthed a question which Hayato ignored in favor of the CEDEF operative. "I fear I am unqualified to fulfill such a task, Gokudera-san. I can’t possibly betray mine Master's trust."

“You won’t, we’ll tell him when its relevant for him to know, or when Tenth wants him to know."

Basil paused. "If it’s for Sawada-dono, I will do mine best."

"I’ll owe you one, Basil. See if CEDEF ever investigated a missing person's case in the Sawada family, and... If Tenth had an older brother."

“ _Tsuna has a brother?!_ ”

“ _Sawada-dono has –?_!”

Hayato shushed both of them, and Basil excused himself to pour himself over in research.

* * *

The first thing Tenth asked when he walked out of his room later that night was, "Where's Hibari?"

Hayato and Yamamoto shot up from the couch, shocked that Tenth managed to collect himself in such a short amount of time and was already back in business mode. Tenth joined them in the living room and pulled his legs close to his chest like a child. Seems like not everything is as well put as he thought. 

"Tenth, we don't need to do this now if you're–"

Yamamoto, who now had a vague idea of what happened but thankfully didn't pry. Instead he placed an assuring hand on Hayato’s shoulder. Yamamoto sympathized with him but they also had to consider Tenth’s feelings. Reluctantly, Hayato let his worry slip and Tenth sent him a smile.

"He’s not yet here," Yamamoto said. "We tried contacting him but it kept getting disconnected."

Tenth chuckled feintly. It sounded so forced that Hayato wanted nothing more than to hug him. "That’s expected."

"Yeah, so I wouldn’t worry about it. If he was in a pinch he'd send Hibird to us."

"Okay… so… How are we doing?" Tenth said, directing his question to Hayato who relayed his search in the docks. He conveniently left out their encounter with Demon Snow and the possibilty that Tsuna's brother may be Mafia.

"I've checked the places the thieves listed we attack if exchanhe for the book,” Yamamoto continued after his report. "They're all Port subsidiaries. Big ones. If we bring those assets down, they’re sure to retaliate. It’ll be a war."

Tenth's brows creased. "Of course it would. They wouldn't have stolen it, if that was what they're really after. They want us to do their dirty work for them."

"Wipe out the Port? And them, us?" Hayato said. “What good would that do?”

Tenth shrugged. “I don’t know, but if we follow their demands, this city will be as good as dead. We absolutely cannot let that happen. Too many would die on both sides. Yamamoto –" the rain guardian smiled "– keep reaching Hibari. I know he won't listen, and I trust him enough to do what's necessary, but he shouldn't go too far."

Then he turned to Hayato, eyes steeled with determonation that neither guardian could hide from. "Tell Chrome to search rival families for connections with Port Mafia. If there’s none, any group that has the power to do this and has a debt to settle with us _and_ Port Mafia. We have to find that Book no matter what."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I totally blew over ya'll and made this a Gokudera POV instead of a Dazai/Tsuna. Sorry! So far I've gotten a good rhythm with writing in the order of 2 BSD then 2 KHR POVs for the first half, then alternating in the latter half. That can be a little frustrating for some, but it's all going to be worth it. It's to keep the mystery going. 
> 
> Gokudera is a protective lil-shit and he is definitely a conspiracy buff. The guy believes in aliens!! I also love Yamamoto, and he deserves more love, so I made sure to give him more.
> 
> Thank you so much for all the kudos and comments. I appreciate the support this fic garnered, it fuels me to keep writing! Here, have some brownies.


	4. Tsunayoshi and the One Lost to Memory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsuna deals with the emotions and thoughts that came with the reveal that his dead brother, was in fact alive and well.

They changed lodgings the next day.

A calculated decision really. The first reason why was because Tsuna was afraid Osamu may look for him despite him telling him _not_ to. It's not that Tsuna was running away, or pushing Osamu even further than the latter did him, he just wasn't ready for _that_ talk yet. 

The second reason was mission related. Gokudera's explosive show in the business district, regardless of how small it was was certain to raise Port Mafia's attention. They couldn't have that. He's seen the internet clips and thankfully Gokudera's face was hard to identify. Even if the Port knew something was up, they didnt know it was them. However they couldn't be complacement over that. Gokudera's actions was uncanny for a civilian and one way or another, people would link them to the crime world. It would only be a matter of time before the Port Mafia figures it out.

Once they put a name to Gokudera's face, they'll be located in hours. It was best they leave their current location, some high-class lodging (thank you Vongola finance), to a cheap house rentals down the residential road.

As soon as they settled down, Tsuna tried to convince his friends that he was ready to return to work. The quicker they dealt with this Book, the faster they can return to Namimori, the easier it'll be to forget that his _supposedly_ dead brother was in fact alive. Unfortunately for him, Gokudera and Yamamoto read him like an open book.

His guardians, his friends, advised him to take a step back. Yamamoto jokingly took on the title of Decimo until he deemed Tsuna emotionally fit to deal with his role again. Gokudera yelled at Yamamoto for being disrespectful to him, _then_ argued that if anyone should have the temporary Decimo then it should be him.

_"As Tenth's right hand I know how he thinks and acts!"_

Yamamoto countered it with his own claim as Tsuna's _real_ right hand, and Gokudera lunged for him.

They only stopped arguing once Tsuna agreed to their terms. It didn't matter who took charge. Tsuna trusted both of them to know what's best when he couldn't at the moment. Gokudera and Yamamoto were right anyway. He, _they_ , came to the city as Vongola, not as teenagers on a trip. Tsuna was here as Vongola Decimo. He was on a mission to retrieve a powerful item that had been under the family's protection for decades. 

Their unidentified enemy was dangerous and smart to use Port Mafia as a looming threat to keep them in a tight leash. Tsuna wanted to keep things peaceful so he didn't want to make a call he'd regret just because his mind wasn't in the right place.

As he excused himself to be alone, Tsuna lay on his bed and allowed the thoughts that played on his mind like a broken record to come to life. 

_Osamu's alive._

There was no way Tsuna could move on from that then return to being Decimo like it was nothing. He had questions, so many in fact, he doubted a day would be enough to catch up.

How is he alive?

What happened to him?

Why was he in Yokohama? 

_Why did he never come home?_

He's certain that Osamu also had questions for him. It's only natural. They haven't seen each other for almost a decade. Tsuna was willing to answer anything and everything his brother would ask, but he didn't know whether he should. 

A lot has changed since his brother died. He was no longer a child for a start. He had more friends, _family_ , than when they were younger. It'd cause Osamu to have a heart attack when he learns all of them are Mafia. Even moreso when he finds out that Tsuna _is_ the Mafia. He can't tell him that he's succeeded the line as the Tenth leader of the world's biggest crime family. It'll only endanger him.

That and... Tsuna wasn't ready to share that to him _or_ Maman. The Vongola was still considered a Mafia, not the vigilante group he and Giotto wanted it to be. The process to change it from the inside was slow, but they were doing it. For someone within the Mafia it was easy to distinguish his dreams, but for someone not, the mafia is still the mafia. 

Osamu could be terrified of him if he learned the truth. Tsuna knows he would, or was, when he found out about their family's lineage. Reborn wasn't exactly subtle about it when he came to announce his soon to be inherited title. He didn't even know the truth about Iemitsu's job until he was chosen to be Decimo. That was only a couple of years ago, he doubted Osamu knew, nor should he probably ever have to.

Osamu would be better off if he stayed ignorant of their Legacy. He dodged a bullet by dying and wasn't chosen to be Decimo instead. Imagining it wasn't hard. Osamu has always been the smart and pragmatic one of the two. If Osamu has been the next Decimo... He probably would've done a better job. 

The ring around his finger spurted out a small orange flame, telling him otherwise. "Sorry, Nats. Just thinking."

Yes, _thinking_ about how his brother would've been the more appropriate successor. Osamu would've ran away from the responsibility like he did at first, but unlike Tsuna, his brother would adapt to the role decided for him much faster. Probably even for the worse. Osamu loved challenging what is present. He would've made Vongola far more formidable that they were when Nono was leading it. 

Tsuna feared that with his brother at the helm, Vongola would remain as a Mafia and not what Primo intended to be. 

It's possible that Osamu could've done that too, if he too inherited Giotto's will but this was all what if's that never happened. There was no point in thinking too much about it when the truth was that they lost Osamu a decade ago.

Tsuna was six when it happened. Osamu was eleven; and he couldn't remember most of it.

Osamu had a school trip outside the city and promised to Tsuna that'd he'd be back with lots candies and, should he find one, a sticker set they could stick all over the room. When he didn't come back, Tsuna called them all a liar.

His brother promised to come back. Osamu never broke a promise. He insisted that Osamu was just playing a mean game of hide and seek. His brother had always been good at that. He always found Tsuna under five minutes, while the latter took an hour to do so. Most of the time, Tsuna would give up and cry to bring him out. Osamu always did and would apologize for picking yet another good hiding spot.

Crying never failed him before, so Tsuna was convinced his brother would come out if he did it again. He cried for for days, but Osamu never returned. 

When the truth registered to him, all Tsuna could do was cry while Nana comforted him. _Osamu wasn't dead_ , Nana told him. They still hadn't found a body, so she and Tsuna held on to the hope that perhaps Osamu was alive out there somewhere.

Iemitsu, who missed most of their childhood life for overseas work returned the moment he heard about Osamu's disappearance. He desperately led a search party with the other parents to find any clues or leads but came up short. Two months after the incident, the trail had gone cold and messy, so much so that the chances of them ever being found grew slimmer by the day.

Five months after his disappearance, a big lead turned up. Unfortunately it wasn't a very hopeful one.

A heavily mutilated body, their organs harvested, and face beaten beyond recognition was found stashed under a bridge connecting Namimori and the next town. It was positively identified as one of Osamu's classmates, and everyone, including Nana lost heart. Whatever hope they held unto were immediately crushed by that single body.

Everything changed for the worse after that. Tsuna was terrified of what it meant for his brother's life but remained optimistic. Osamu was strong and smart, and brave. He wouldn't die so easily. He'd want Tsuna to be brave too.

Nana, however, fell into despair. She got sick. Really, _really_ sick. She started to act strange, careless, and even talked to air. She still cared for Tsuna, but Tsuna knew his mother was not dealing with the loss in a healthy way.

She couldn't cope with the grief properly, and before Tsuna even realized what was going on, Nana started to claim that Tsuna was an only child. She completely erased Osamu's existence in her mind even though the latter's presence could still be felt in their house.

Tsuna, unable to understand Nana's delusion showed her every picture of Osamu in the house. He told her that they slept in the same room, which had two beds even though Tsuna liked to sleep on Osamu's bed. He also pointed out all the college level books in the house that belonged to Osamu. The trophies on the wall, their drawings, and Osamu's life plan. They were all there in the house.

Osamu was everywhere. 

He wasn't dead. Not to Tsuna anyway, but the more he tried, the more Nana pulled away. She rejected the painful reality and lived in a dream where only Tsuna existed - a combination of both who Osamu was and Tsunayoshi true self. 

Iemitsu sent her away to be treated while Tsuna stayed with relatives from Iemitsu's side that he didn't know existed till then. While Nana was away, Iemitsu cleaned out the house of everything that might remind her, or them, of Osamu. Tsuna was reluctant to throw away memories of his brother just like that, when they couldn't even bury him and swiped a picture to remind him of what he was like. 

He wasn't allowed to mention Osamu again for Nana's sake. As much as Tsuna wanted to honor his brother, he also didn't want Nana to get sick again. He did as he was asked and kept the memory to himself. 

He kept it secret from everyone. He neve told his friends, not the Vongola – his new family - no one. Not even his mother knew of Osamu.

It was his and Iemitsu's secret before Iemitsu's double life as a Mafioso was their secret.

Four years after Osamu disappeared, Tsuna still kept the picture hidden inside his drawer. He seldom looked at it, but he liked the idea of having it there. Soon enough the farce that Osamu never existed became second nature to him.

Nana wasn't sick anymore, at least, not on the surface. She was a lot happier and acted the same as she did before the tragedy. Even though it hurt Tsuna that he could never mention his beloved brother again, he couldn't forgive himself either if he caused he to return to that sickly state.

By the time Tsuna inherited the Vongola title, he had already forgotten what Osamu looked like. He doubted that his then eleven year old brother would look the same as he was at in the present day. After he crossed paths with him on accident, Tsuna had never been more wrong in his life. The moment he laid eyes on Osamu again, he was the spitting image of his younger self, only older.

Osamu had grown taller, his face grew longer and looked more mature than his cheeky younger self. He was a lot thinner than before. His eyes were still the same colors as his, but they no longer held the brightness Tsuna remembered they had as children. They were sharper, perhaps even colder towards the harshness of life. It reminded him of a bit of the rain that showered everything away, and clouds that drifted in the sky on its own.

He recognized his brother, but this was also not the same brother he lost. This was Osamu Dazai, the person his brother grew up to be.

Tsuna glanced at his phone that sat at the foot of his bed. He wondered if he should call Nana. Unlike the times he tried to convince her before she was sent away, Osamu would actually be there, not some left over books or photographs. However, after some more thought. He finally decided against it.

Osamu didn't know about the life they lived after he disappeared. Tsuna wasn't certain if Osamu would come back with him. Tsuna also had to think of their mother. When she found out about Iemitsu's real job, and Tsuna's position as Vongola Decimo, she almost relapsed.

Tsuna can't bring her to go through all that again.

Tsuna ruffled his hair. Deciding on this would be easier if Osamu was here. "What should I do…?"

As though with some divine intervention, a knock came from the door and Yamamoto peeked in with his usual grin. He raised a plate of food and said, "You missed dinner. Thought I'd bring you something."

"Sorry…" Tsuna said while he avoided the other's eyes, "I – I forgot." In truth, he just didn't really feel like eating. He was too occupied with his thoughts to even realize that morning passed to evening. He looked at the tray with a plate of katsudon and a bowl of miso and felt his stomach growl.

Yamamoto laughed as the younger teen tried to hide the crimson flush on his cheeks. "Even as boss, you still think of others before yourself."

"I'm sorry?"

"I'm saying that you worry about everything too much. But that's why I chose to follow you in the first place, so no harm done."

Tsuna blushed a little at the compliment and silently drank the Miso. Yamamoto didn't say anything more, but Tsuna could feel that he wanted him to say something first. It's that Hyper Intuition at work. "So…" he started. "You know what happened?"

"More or less," Yamamoto grumbled, guilty. "Gokudera didn't want to tell me but I figured it out anyway. He's not exactly the best at keeping secrets." Tsuna raised an eyebrow, silently asking for more.

"He wanted to know if CEDEF investigated a missing person's case in your family, like a… brother."

Tsuna's eyes widened. Iemitsu returned to Japan immediately after his brother disappeared. At first he thought Iemitsu came back because he was also worried, but Iemitsu never showed that he cared for them until then. Tsuna knew that his father loved them, he just didn't appreciate his kind of parenting. Iemitsu was supportive, but his methods were too similar to Reborn; and Tsuna can't say he liked either approach. They were both cold, detached, and placed too high an expectation for him.

Thinking back on it, Iemitsu didn't just come back to help find Osamu. Iemitsu brought CEDEF in with Vongola's interest in mind. Whether it was a decision he made as a father or as CEDEFs President didn't matter. In Tsuna's turbulent eyes, Iemitsu only cared as much as he did for his son's disappearance because he was as much a candidate for Decimo as Tsuna was.

"Basil told us he found a case that might fit what we're looking for but it's a file restricted to people with level like your dad's."

Tsuna gripped his Miso bowl as a dark thought whispered in his mind. _Iemitsu knew._ Iemitsu may have known that Osamu was alive but didn't tell him nor Nana. Thus begged the question, _Why didn't he?_

Yamamoto noticed his silent anger and placed a hand on his shoulder. "We'll ask Iemitsu about it, but Gokudera says we shouldn't until you're ready. This is going to bring up a lot of old scars, so it's up to you."

Tsuna groaned. "I don't know, Yamamoto. I really don't… He disappeared ten years ago and we all thought he was dead. If Iemitsu knew, because CEDEF knew then –"

Yamamoto nodded. "I know, it's… pretty bad of him to do that, but we don't know the whole truth so let's stop assuming the worst alright? Iemitsu's not dad of the year, but he's always had your best interest in heart."

Tsuna can't help but scoff. Iemitsu did act silently, almost awfully, with the best intentions. However, this situation was not the time for those misplaced good intentions. Nana erased Osamu's existence because of her grief, where was the best intention there? If he knew Osamu was alive, or he knew what really happened to him, then he should've _told_ them.

Tsuna gasped a possibilty sparking in mind. Was… Osamu's disappearance related to Vongola from the start? Nono's three sons were assassinated to lessen the direct line line of succession. 

His and Osamu's existence were a secret, but with Vongola's intellgence network... they could've known, and acted so that the least capable candidate was left. 

Tsuna really didn't want to think of the worst from Vongola, but at this point anything was possible.

"Basil said he'll hold onto it until you've made your choice, so… what will you do?" Yamamoto continued amidst Tsuna's thoughts that were slowly spiraling into a conspiracy he did not have the energy to attend to right now.

Tsuna had two conflicting thoughts.

One, he wanted to demand answers from Iemitsu. This wouldn't be the first time he's lied to him and Nana, but it certainly was the final nail in the coffin. The other calmly reasoned with him to not villainize his father like he did in the past. If Iemitsu knew, then he hid it from everyone for a reason. Whatever that was, Tsuna wanted to know. He deserved that truth at least. Osamu deserved that too.

"I want to know," he said. "I also… want to talk to my brother. Iemitsu might lie to protect me, but I'm not a kid anymore. I deserve to know and decide on my own!"

"I knew you'd say that," Yamamoto pulled out a file behind his back, "so I went and asked for Osamu's file. It's up to you if you want to read it or not though."

Tsuna stared at the folder and tentatively flipped it to the first page. The moment he laid eyes on Osamu's clipped photo on the corner of the file, Tsuna's eyes watered. He broke down into a weeping mess. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I just – I saw him and I just got so angry. I wanted to hug him but I couldn't bring myself to. He was there, but he looked like I shouldn't be here –"

Yamamoto wrapped an arm around Tsuna and patted his head. " _Oh my God_. I pushed him away. I told him to not look for me! I – I told him that I'll forget about him! What if he listens? What if he never talks to me again? Yamamoto! What do I do?"

Yamamoto smiled, a little too nonchalantly at Tsuna's distress. "If he really is your brother, then you shouldn't worry about it. He'll find you."

"But I told him not to?"

"If he's really a Sawada, then I'm sure he won't listen."

A soft chuckle escaped Tsuna's throat. That did sound like Osamu "Even if he did find me, I don't know what I'll say. He's living a life far away from all this Mafia stuff. I can't just bring him to our family now."

Yamamoto's face wrinkled. "Well… I uh – about that. I read through his file," he said sheepishly, and Tsuna gave him a look. "I got curious! Gokudera thought he and that Atsushi guy could be Port Mafia so I had to be sure."

" _Nii-san is in the mafia!?_ "

"No, no, Gokudera _thought_ he was."

"Why would he think that?"

"He said you were with Kyoka Izumi. She's an assassin for the Port called Demon Snow."

Tsuna's eyes grew wide as his face lost color. He fought off the squeamish whine that almost escaped his lips. There was no way. Absolutely no way Kyoka-chan was an assassin. She was so small and adorable, kind of like Chrome… When she's not being Mafiosi that is.

"Didn't you recognize her?" Yamamoto asked. "She was in the files Reborn made you read. Unless… you forgot to read it?"

He did read them, he also just happened to forget what was in them after he fell asleep on the way here. "B – But Kyoka-chan didn't look like an assassin. She loves crepes, and she's good friends with Atsushi. He's very kind too!"

"A lot of assassins shouldn't feel like assassins, Tsuna."

Tsuna knew that perfectly well. Vongola had a surplus of assassins that didn't even seem like one until they showed their intent to kill. Yamamoto was one of the closest people Tsuna knew capable of that bloodlust. Even Squalo recognized his talent for it and often asked the rain guardian to join them in missions. Yamamoto never killed but he could easily do so if he wanted. Yamamoto simply remained true to his oath with the sword. He wields it to protect life, not take it.

Kyoka left the same impression on Tsuna when they met. "Even if she was, I can tell she's trying to change. If she's Port Mafia, I don't think she is anymore."

"You got all that from Hyper Intuition huh?"

"W - wha - No! She just didn't seem like that kind of person when we hung out!"

"If you say so, then I trust you," Yamamoto smiled. "Even if she isn't anymore, which we aren't sure of, this proves your brother has some connections with the Mafia. If you tell him about us, about you, it shouldn't matter to him."

"It's not that simple," Tsuna sighed. "He'll think we're evil!"

"Only you'd think that, Tsuna." Yamamoto chuckled.

"Th – then just because Kyoka-chan may be Mafia doesn't mean nii-san is!"

"I'm not saying he is, I'm saying he knows a thing or two about them. He's part of a small detective agency that employs people with special abilities. They've clashed with Port Mafia before so he's got experience."

Tsuna has never head of this Agency, but he did know about Port Mafia and their officers with supernatural abilities. It was one of the reasons Port managed to keep Vongola off Yokohama for so long. Abilities were evolved Dying Will Flames. Like the Dying Will, they hail from the inherent wave energies that exist within a person. The only difference was that, Dying Will Flames are channeled through objects like the rings or boxes, powered by purity and resolve. Abilities, on the other hand, are flames that have integrated with a person's genes because their bodies could not handle the raw wave energy they possessed. The wave energy adapted into that body and birthed specific and unique abilities. They didn't need rings to channel their Dying Will; their bodies _were_ the channel.

Tsuna wouldn't be surprised if Osamu developed an ability because of their family's rare affinity for the Sky-attribute. If he and Iemitsu were capable of it, then Osamu should be too. "Nii-san has an ability... and fights against the Mafia… as a detective?"

As the thought sunk, Tsuna grew pale and perhaps even forgot how to breathe because Yamamoto told him to. "THEN WE CAN'T TELL HIM THAT WE'RE MAFIA AT ALL! IF HE EVER FOUND OUT HE'D SEND US TO JAIL!"

Yamamoto once again just laughed at his typical panic. "He won't send you to jail, Tsuna. He's your brother, and we haven't exactly done anything bad. Vongola doesn't even operate in Japan, so even if he _did_ decide to catch us, we won't be under Japanese jurisdiction."

Tsuna held his heart in relief. He did not want to see jail this early.

"The agency has an address here. We can check it out tomorrow, or you can just read through all this. There's… a lot," his face oddly turned grim; Tsuna silently wondered why. "As your friend, I think it'd be better to talk to him first before you skim through it."

Tsuna turned the file back to the page where his brother's picture was stapled on. He missed him, _so much_. Tsuna wanted to see him again and hear his voice before it turned into another haze in his mind. For a few hours, Tsuna wished he could turn back time from when it was just the two of them against the world.

Tsuna pushed the file back into Yamamoto's hand. "Let's visit the Agency and nii-san tomorrow."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alternatively called, exposition chapter (but not the whole picture because Tsuna has faulty memory of that event). 
> 
> I tried my best to make Dazai's disappearance and lack of presence in KHR canon believable as possible. I hope I did well. I probably didn't need to go all out with a mental illness for Nana, but I thought it was plausible with how little she seems to know or recognize all the stuff Tsuna and co. get themselves into in the main series.
> 
> Nana's condition was fashioned after dissociative amnesia, which is defined as "disruptions or breakdowns of memory, consciousness, and awareness" by WebMD. I'm no expert in psychology nor mental illnesses so please take this with a grain of salt. I would gladly accept any criticism or notes from those that are familiar with this disorder though, or if there's a more appropriate diagnosis for her symptoms (at one point I thought it was schizophrenia, but amnesia fit more)
> 
> Also added that exposition on my bs power system combination. Hope that made sense. If you squint hard enough there was one self-indulgent ship insert in there, care to figure out which one it is?


	5. Higuchi and the Emblem Without a Name

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Higuchi has a little curse she never told anyone. Something bad always happens during her days off from work.

Ichiyo wasn't sure if it was luck or fate that cursed her so. However, it's clear both entities hated her.

Not once has Ichiyo had a day off wherein she didn't bump into a member of the Armed Detective Agency. Yokohama was a big city and yet it seemed so small whenever it concerns them. Their offices weren't that far off from each other, but that still didn't explain the frequency of it happening.

It started some time after peace treaty between the Agency and Mafia was placed. 

One time she crossed paths with that skinny but deceptively strong farm boy with the straw hat while buying produce in the market. She wasn't familiar with his name and the latter didnt as well, but the boy certainly recognized her. He even greeted her as the "lady with the gun". Ichiyo wanted nothing to do with the him nor the Agency and tried to walk away. The boy however noticed her shopping bag and introduced her to a kind old lady that sold the best vegetables Ichiyo has ever tasted for a cheap price.

After they parted, Ichiyo has never felt more disgusted with herself. Fraternizing with the enemy. How _disgraceful_. What would Akutagawa-senpai say?

She ended up as a regular of that old lady's vegetable stand.

In another time, she spotted the borderline incestuous siblings in a movie house. Fortunately for her, she managed to evade their attention and made no contact.

In one, completely unprecedented instance, she ran into the Agency's doctor, Akiko Yosano, while shopping. Ichiyo almost pulled out a gun on her on instinct until Yosano told her to calm down and reminded her of the treaty. She explained that she was only here to catch the good deals on kitchen knives and pointed Ichiyo towards a killer deal.

Ichiyo ended up buying 2 sets that she didn't need. It was horrible. She did not need this many knives.

The weirdest encounter happened last month while she was stalking a girl she thought was Akutagawa-senpai's girlfriend. White tiger and the glasses guy caught her spying on the same girl they were after for a friend, and they were all equally shocked to discover that the beautiful girl turned out to be Black Lizard's assassin, Gin; who _also_ turned out to be senpai's younger sister.

At this point, Ichiyo was convinced she needed to make some tally or bingo sheet just to keep track of how many she's met on accident.

Which is why today felt off. With the recurring pattern of her seeing someone unexpected during her days off, the fact that she hasn't made her skittish. She really shouldn't be asking for trouble during her free time but sometimes, given her line of work, the calm is usually more terrifying than the storm. 

Ichiyo sighed. "Akutagawa-senpai was right... I've been working too much. I need the break."

"Excuse me," called a soft, calming voice behind her.

Ichiyo turned to face a rather tall man with spiky, black hair and large brown eyes. He had a black shinai bag slung over his shoulder, which Ichiyo only recognized because a couple of Mafia knew and utilized Kendo.

"Hi! Sorry to bother you," the man greeted with a cheeky smile. "I'm new here and kind of need directions. Could you help me?"

"Of course," she nodded. While she may be Mafia, Ichiyo was still a decent human being. She was part of the Mafia because she loved the city, and she loved the people in it. Tourists included. Ichiyo felt a little envious of other people's lifestyle when she thought about it in that way. All they had to do was work hard for a couple of months then reward themselves with a vacation out of town. Oh, what she'd do to be able to do that with Akutagawa-senpai.

"Where do you need to go?"

The young man's eyes earnestly shined. "There's this jewelry store. Jubilee Works? I've checked maps and even asked around but no one seems to recognize the name."

Ichiyo wasn't surprised that the common folk didn't know of it. Jubilee Works was one of the many fronts Port Mafia had to cover their smuggling trade. It was still a legitimate business, but hardly anyone bought from it given the prices Ozaki placed on the accessories sold in the store. There were baseless rumors that the displays were presents from rival groups trying to impress and court her. The store was her personal showroom. No one dared take a piece from there unless they wanted to incur her wrath. Ozaki never wore them herself but she liked the idea of owning them.

Ichiyo might've stared too long or remained in her thoughts for too long because the taller male chuckled. "I'm sorry. You probably don't know either. I just read they had this diamond ring I know my fiancé would absolutely love as our wedding ring. The price… is a little steep but I wanted to check it anyway."

The man smiled in a way Ichiyo found endearing. He looked kind of cute. Ichiyo gasped, catching herself. This didn't count as emotional cheating against Akutagawa-senpai, did it?

"Sorry," the man apologized with a soft laugh. "I tend to overshare. I'll be on my way then."

Ichiyo watched the man turn with a downcast expression and sighed. The things she did for people in this town. Directing him in the general direction of the store shouldn't hurt. It wasn't like he he had the means to buy off that diamond. "It's on the fifth street across MM to your left. It's housed on a pink building. It's some ways hidden so you'll have to look on your own."

The man's close lipped smile broke into a grin, and all too suddenly Ichiyo felt weak on her knees. This man's fiancé was really lucky. "Thank you!"

As she watched him leave, Ichiyo sort of felt like her day had just been blessed by some soothing rain shower and fully intended to keep its good note going. She bought some clothes and restocked her food, even adding a few pieces of expensive meals to treat herself. She returned to her apartment and spent the remaining day playing some drama on television while she polished her guns.

The perfect day.

At least, it was perfect until her phone rang.

"Hirotsu?" she answered, genuinely surprised that the leader of the Black Lizard needed her for something. "I'm off duty today."

"Yes, I apologize for cutting a good day short," Hirotsu calmly said. "However there's been some unusual activity in the pier. Your assistance is required."

Dropping everything, Ichiyo wasted no time to change into her work clothes, and pocketed a few guns inside her suit jacket and behind her belt. "I'm on my way." 

When Ichiyo arrived at the pier, Black Lizard was scattered everywhere. They forced open a crates and checked every box's contents with intense scrutiny. She walked over to Hirotsu, who smoked just outside one of the larger warehouses the Mafia used as a storehouse for weapons. "What's going on?"

"An unknown individual seems to have wandered along the pier."

"Impossible," Ichiyo said. "We keep this place under lock and key. Where were the ground personnel? Did they get a good look?"

Hirotsu blew out a cloud of smoke into the air, somehow nonchalant about the whole ordeal despite the urgency in his voice earlier. "The security was present, but this person managed to evade them so we have no description. They opened this warehouse –" he jabbed a thumb at the building to his left where a couple of suits carried out crates. "Two more by the very end."

"Anything taken?"

"That's the thing. We haven't found anything wrong or misplaced. Just locks busted loose or tampered with." Hirotsu gestured for Ichiyo to follow him, and they walked towards a freighter by the shore. The senior Mafioso pulled out a black envelope in his coat and continued, "This was found on one of the cargos an hour ago."

Ichiyo put on some gloves and carefully took the letter in her hands. She sliced it open away from her and Hirotsu's face in case it was laced with poison, or was once again infused with some frustrating ability. Once she felt the letter safe was safe enough to open, Ichiyo pulled out the single black paper.

On the other side of it was a golden embossed emblem with a bullet insignia. It was surrounded by an intricate floral or vine like spiral border and above the insignia were two shotguns crossed together with a clam and spread out wings on either side. At the very bottom of the emblem was a banner that read, "Vong… _Vongola_?" she read in poor attempt at English; if that _was_ English. Hirotsu's eyes widened. "What's Vongola?"

"Impossible…" the older Mafioso mumbled in disbelief. He ran towards the freighter without warning and Ichiyo ran after him. The older Mafioso pushed people out the cordoned cargo and pulled at his gloves, a habit he developed before activating his ability.

Gin and Tachihara were immediately at his side with their weapons drawn. The remaining lizards pointed their guns towards the door. Ichiyo also pulled out her pistol and held it firmly out of instinct.

Hirotsu pressed his hands, which glowed purple, on the handle and breathed. A megaton of force blasted the door open to reveal more crates inside the metallic box. None of it looked tampered with, but Hirotsu needed to be sure. "Check the entire ship for any more of those letters! Leave nothing unturned." While the rest of Lizard scrambled to cover more ground, Hirotsu turned to his trusted lieutenants. "Run through the list of items inside this container, if even a single thing has been added or missing, you tell me _immediately_."

Gin disappeared to retrieve a list while Tachihara gathered men to begin their search. Hirotsu cursed under his breath, while Ichiyo remained none the wiser about the letter.

"What's Vongola?"

Hirotsu sighed, suddenly too exhausted to explain. "They're a dangerous group from our distant past. We hadn't crossed paths with them for a long time to be of any worth mentioning."

"Are they ability users?"

Hirotsu shook his head. "Not quite. However, they also utilize powers similar to our own and it has made them powerful and feared by many. The only reason they do not exist in Yokohama was because we made it so."

 _Old rivals_ , Ichiyo guessed, but she's never heard of them. Either Mori did not want anyone to know about them, or it was a case of 'the winners write history' and as winners, Port Mafia erased Vongola's presence in Yokohama. Still, Hirotsu reacted as though their group was something the Port Mafia could not handle on their own. "Just how powerful were they?"

"Powerful enough to have almost wiped us out of the city."

"That's impossible…" she said. "No one is stronger than us in this city."

Hirotsu closed his eyes. "Vongola has generations of experience ahead of us, and dozens of families under its wing. Their strength and influence are unrivalled by any criminal alliance. When they came to this city, Port Mafia's fangs were akin to a newly born pup against a fully grown mountain wolf. We stood no chance, and for decades we were picked off one by one until they dominated us by sheer number alone."

"Fortunately, Mori-san decided to end this bloodshed by drafting a treaty between himself and Vongola's Ninth. It's rumored that a younger boss had finally succeeded his place, and he is an anomaly," Hirotsu said. "There is word that Vongola's Tenth is steering the family into a new direction it has never experienced before. It's possible that Tenth's vision intends to break what the previous boss has achieved. This letter may be a sign of a warning."

Ichiyo bit her lip. _A war letter._ The city and its people have suffered enough trouble caused by power hungry men. "No," she said firmly. "I won't let that happen. I love this city. Most of us grew up here. We would protect it with our lives, and if Vongola intends to invade and destroy it... then we'll destroy them first."

* * *

Ichiyo had only gone up to the Boss' office three times in her entire career.

The first was when she was recruited, the second when she was assigned to be Akutagawa's assistant, and the third was when she propositioned Akutagawa's rescue. Today would be the fourth, and it was under circumstances Ichiyo didn't expect.

She held the black envelope with the Vongola emblem on her hand. Hirotsu filled her in with their organization's history and it made her sick to her stomach. If the Vongola was really as powerful and influential as Hirotsu said they were, what was there to gain other than territory? Could they not be satisfied with their rule and wanted more? Was Vongola Tenth that terrifying a leader, so greedy for power and hungry for blood compared to Port Mafia's own revered Boss?

"I have an urgent letter for the Boss."

The guards escorted her towards a set of elevators that led to a hallway directly into Mori's office. She introduced herself to the last pair of guards, and was welcomed into a vast room that seemed empty at first glance. At the very back stood a work desk surrounded with bookshelves that reached the ceiling and in the middle, Ogai Mori sat with a serene look on his face while drinking tea.

Elise sat cross legged on the floor with dolls she had decapitated and dismembered behind him. She marveled at their lack of limbs and then reassembled and dressed them all up again while she kept an innocent smile on her face. Even with the knowledge that she was an Ability, Ichiyo can't come to terms that she acted as real as they all were. Everytime she saw her act like a normal child with murder on her face she can't help but shiver.

She ignored Elise's wide cerulean eyes that watched her intently as she approached. Yep. Definitely creepy. Ichiyo stopped at a certain distance to show respect, and bowed. "I've come to deliver a message."

"Proceed."

With a short bow, Ichiyo relayed the details of the attack and the events that led to finding the Vongola letter as brief as she could. Mori stopped drinking. Elise's head snapped to an odd tilt and kept her eyes on her like a lifeless doll.

"Vongola…" Mori hummed. "Now that's a name I haven't heard in ages." He held out his hand for Ichiyo to hand him the letter on her hand, and without missing a beat, Ichiyo moved forward. He opened the envelope with eyes narrowed in interest. He marveled at the beauty of the embossed golden seal on top of black parchment as though reliving a memory.

"I see they haven't lost their touch for extravagance." Elise tried to grab the letter from Mori's hand but the Boss kept it out of reach. The summoned ability huffed. "Were you aware we were invited for their young Tenth's inheritance ceremony?"

"No sir."

"I ignored it!" Mori laughed. "This must be a warning from their new boss."

"That's pretty childish," Elise said.

"You're right Elise-chan! I was quite fond of Nono but it seems his replacement does not share our mutual respect." Mori leaned back with his hands folded together in thought. "I haven't the faintest of what he's like, this young Tenth. Whispers have it that he's no older than Akutagawa and have taken down men twice as powerful as he is."

Ichiyo tried so desperately to not imagine someone that looked like Akutagawa-senpai, and was twice as intimidating and powerful.

"His guardians are also a mystery too. Traitors, civilians, and once enemies of Vongola were handpicked to run Vongola with him." Mori picked up a biscuit, and studied it. "Vongola has been very protective of their new heirs since and has kept any information about their tenth generation as quiet as they can. If any of those unknowns are in _my_ city..." Finally, Mori turned his full attention to Ichiyo. "Was there anything suspicious in the pier?"

Ichiyo shook his head. "Hirotsu believes Vongola wants a war."

Mori hummed again. "If that is indeed what they want, then there is no option but to do so."

"But Sir, many could die if we through will it! Not just us, but the people..." Mori sent her a look, and Ichiyo lowered her head. "We shouldn't engage them in public. I suggest we locate them and propose a meeting. If we talk to this Tenth… then surely he'd understand?"

"You'll find that statement foolish, Higuchi. Vongola's reign changes every succession. Ninth was a peaceful man. He agreed to leave the city alone to preserve the lives of his men. I cannot say the same to his next kin."

Ichiyo nodded in defeat.

"We've always defended this city, and we will do so again without fail." Mori said with conviction that resonated in Ichiyo . "I want everything on the current family, who they are, where they are, and what it is they're after."

Ichiyo nodded at the order and promptly excused herself. As soon as the doors closed, Mori broke into a soft chuckle when his fingers traced the emblem's mark.

"Rintarou?" Elise asked in worry.

"Something interesting is heading our way, Elise-chan. We should buy you a new dress for the wondrous occasion!"

Elise turned bright red. "I don't wanna wear another of your stupid tacky dresses!"

* * *

Ichiyo didn't have to wait long before she figured out that Vongola was aware of her snooping around.

They had no information about the tenth generation, so Ichiyo had to send out favors to their networks in and out of the country. Immediately the day after that, she got calls of attacks all over Yokohama. She jumped from one scene to another to deal with the damages, and regrettably, grieve the loss of members she's never even met.

Two groups on lookout at the pier were shot and cut by their own weapons. Another group that was protecting a delivery were ambushed and left to bleed out from multiple stab wounds. Even for someone working for the deadly underground, the scene was far too much for Ichiyo to stomach. She had to take a few minutes off to wash out the blood and death from her eyes before she received another call.

After everything, Ichiyo was not prepared to head into another slew of bodies. To her surprised however this last attack felt deliberate and … _tamer_ than the massacres from earlier. Everyone was alive, battered and beaten to near death, but alive nonetheless. She was assured that all personnel would recover in few days given rest and a bottle of pain killers. The only person that knocked too close to death's door was the boss of the company who was stubborn enough to not die and tried to give out a clue.

Unable to talk, the boss wrote down the name of an accounting firm that handled most of Port Mafia's foreign transactions instead. Ichiyo's eyes widened when light bulb lit up in her mind. The attacks were smoke. A mere distraction from their real goal.

They attacked the data company to get a location of the object they were looking for, and it seemed, whatever it was they learned in the data company led them to the accounting firm. Ichiyo didn't waste another second and made her way to the company written on the bloodied paper.

At the same time, she received an email containing all the profiles of Vongola's new Tenth generation. Her network couldn't get their real names but she had vague physical photographs of each alleged guardian around the young boss. 

The Tenth Vongola looked much younger than she imagined. Mori-san mentioned he and Akutagawa-senpai were roughly the same age but Ichiyo failed to see it. This was a _child_ wearing a suit typically worn by Mafiosi. His eyes held no malice or darkness that Ichiyo had grown to fear and respect from their own Boss. His eyes were the complete opposite, bright and hopeful. He looked like he couldn't hurt a single fly. Then Ichiyo recalled all the young people in Port Mafia that could easily slit her throat if she so much as blinked in their direction - Q, Elise, even Kyoka who was unfortunately no longer a part of them.

If they could become assassins and feared assets of Port Mafia, then this kid, regardless of his kind eyes, could definitely be Vongola's Tenth Boss. Ichiyo didn't even want to imagine how much killing intent the young man hid behind an innocent smile.

The other eight profiles that came after his were of boys and a girl that were just as young. She couldn't help but be skeptical of her information for a few seconds. How could the largest and most powerful Mafia family in the world be led by a group of teenagers? She reserved her doubts for another time and continued to scan through them until she recognized the profile of one man with black spiky hair, large brown eyes, and a soft charming smile.

" _Shit!_ Get Black Lizard to Tohmatsu Financing, now!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The plot thickens! Vongola now has a body count, or do they???? 
> 
> I've decided from the start that Higuchi would be the first Port POV because she doesn't get enough screen/page time. She's badass but Kafka-sensei won't make her useful. This chapter had one too many rewrites because of the things I wanted to plant. First draft actually had her catch Gokudera's incident but that part felt overused so I made her meet someone else, and chase someone else entirely.
> 
> Up next is another Bungou POV. Shall we make bets as to who it'll be? Hint: It's not Port Mafia.


	6. Kunikida and the Unknown "Mood"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kunikida notices small things about Dazai which he liked to call as "slips" that detailed the latter's mood. He's pretty familiar with all of them and only actively avoided one. However, Kunikida soon discovers that Dazai had one other mood he's never shown to anyone.

Having been Dazai's partner for roughly a few years now, Doppo was confident he'd gotten better at reading the former's moods. One didn't survive having a lunatic for a partner without learning a thing or two about them; which didn't mean much when said partner was a great liar and a master manipulator.

Dazai hid his emotions and thoughts behind a smile and a quirky persona. Doppo only knew of this because he wasn't an idiot, and he wouldn't be a detective of a Detective Agency if he wasn't observant. Dazai was a smart man. He was crafty and a great tactician, however, he was also a dumbass. He got himself in a lot of trouble, and Doppo was always the one to get him out of it. Dazai can't hide everything, although admittedly, he was _very_ good at hiding truths about himself.

These "slips" as Doppo liked to call them appear very rarely because almost nothing fazes Dazai until they do. They're very small cues and were hard to notice unless one knew where to look.

One of the most common cues was Dazai's scheming face. Doppo knew this well because it landed him and Atsushi, in dozens of situations wherein they realized that they agreed to become bait a second too late. Dazai's smile crooked up his face until his eyes were practically eaten up by his cheeks. It was _that_ scheming smile.

The other one was his innocent head tilting play. He typically did this to avoid work, or to feign ignorance to get out of trouble. This didn't work on anyone in the office, but it certainly worked on civilians. Doppo found this play useful for investigations because Dazai had that charm that reeled in women. Unfortunately, the rate of how fast he could attract women was twice as fast as he could creep them out because of his suicidal tendencies.

Another easy way to tell if Dazai was irritated at something he did not expect was to catch the twitch of his left eye after a tongue click. Doppo had a hard time catching this one because Dazai was quick to solve the source of his frustration in minutes.

The worst cue of all was the one Doppo hated and dreaded for the most.

In the rarest of occasions, Dazai would be silent the entire day. He wouldn't even try to kill himself. Dazai would just appear in the office _on time_ and finish his papers, _on time_. He still interacted with everyone as he would, but Doppo could tell something was off. It happened almost two or three times in a year, but the dates varied so much that Kunikidia can't tell if they're solemn events in Dazai's past that the latter just refused to share or he just got his heart broken. 

Regardless of what made Dazai spiral into this mood, Doppo felt like it was his duty as his partner to help him ease some of his pain. Dazai was not the sharing type, but it was obvious in the times Doppo offered him a drink, that the former appreciated the company.

Doppo didn't need glasses to notice that something was wrong when Dazai returned with Atsushi and Kyoka, five hours after he was supposed to be in the office, with a downcast look.

Dazai walked over to his desk without ever greeting anyone and robotically opened his laptop and got to typing up his report with laser focused eyes.

Something happened out there, and he knew Dazai won't tell him so he decided to go to the next best thing. Doppo walked over to Atsushi and pulled him to the side. Kyoko stayed closed behind but kept her distance, seemingly aware of the "secrecy" of their hushed tones.

“What’s wrong with Dazai?”

“Ahhh – He…. Uh – Well... It's complicated?” Atsushi stuttered through nervous beads of sweat. Doppo stared at him, silent and demanding, and the white tiger bit his lip. “He – He met someone.”

“Like a girl?” If Dazai did meet a girl, it was probably a girl he flirted with then promptly asked to commit suicide with. He'd been rejected by girls like this plenty of times, but Dazai never let it get to him.

Atsushi held his tongue and nervously shifted his eyes.

Doppo's eyes narrowed. So it _wasn't_ a girl. “If you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine. Whatever’s got Dazai worked up is pushing him to work so I’m not complaining.”

Just before he passed by Kyoka, the reformed assassin nonchalantly said, “Dazai-san saw his younger brother.”

“Kyoka-chan!” Atsushi cried. “We weren’t supposed to tell anyone!”

" _Brother?!_ " Doppo shouted, and Atsushi slapped his hands over the former's mouth. They wrestled on the floor for a bit, with Doppo trying to break free while Atsushi pleaded for his cooperation. Kyoka just watched them with amused eyes.

Doppo would’ve cooperated with them if they just asked nicely but Atsushi was being unreasonable, so he jabbed an elbow at the younger's stomach. Atsushi curled into his stomach, groaning, while Doppo stood to fix his clothes.

He glanced at Dazai to check if he’d heard, and thankfully the brunette had not moved nor registered anything else around him because Ranpo started to stack marshmallows on top of his head. Kenji snickered by the side, cheering Ranpo on to make it higher, while Junichiro and his sister recorded it on their phone.

This wasn't just a mood, Doppo thought. This was a serious problem. A personal Dazai problem. Ranpo couldn't possibly have stacked ten pieces of marshmallow on Dazai's head if he had been fully conscious.

“Please don’t talk to him about it,” Atsushi said. “It was an accident. I don't think he was even prepared for it… He'd been silent ever since Tsuna left."

“Tsuna said he'll forget about seeing him, and for Dazai- san to not to find him,” Kyoka added, a little monotonous and devoid of emotion although she frowned a little, worried. “Dazai-san is most likely saddened by this.”

"Anyone would be," Atsushi sighed.

Doppo scratched his head, both irritated and intrigued by this dilemma. After being partners for so long, Kunkida just now found out about Dazai’s brother, or family for that matter! Doppo just assumed that Dazai was an orphan because of his past with the Port Mafia and how he practically didn't exist before or after that. Still… the thought of Dazai having a biological family out there, in the city, Doppo didn't want to imagine a mini suicidal maniac running around. 

"Alright," he said, which surprised the two new recruits of the Agency. "I'll take care of it. Tell the Boss we're leaving early for…personal reasons."

Atsushi and Kyoka nodded their heads, and Doppo put on his serious face. It was time to head into battle. He flicked a hand at Ranpo and Kenji, silently telling them to leave, much to the latter's dismay. Doppo settled into his seat, which was in front of Dazai's own, and coughed.

Dazai didn't even twitch, much less acknowledge his presence. Doppo growled. Okay, this was going to be harder than he thought. "Hey, do you want to get a drink tonight? My treat."

Dazai's seemingly empty eyes fluttered towards him. For a while he just stared at the blond until he smiled. "I'd like that."

"The night's young, let's make good use of it."

* * *

Dazai immediately downed three glasses of sake minutes after they were seated. He ordered a bottle of whiskey and drank four shots, clear, before their food arrived. Dazai was far from a light drinker. In truth, he was probably the strongest and craftiest drunk Doppo has ever met.

The first time they met, Dazai challenged Doppo into a drinking contest. Naturally, Doppo declined the opportunity to go black out drunk with a new colleague to be professional, but Dazai managed to trick him into agreeing. One of his biggest regrets really. Doppo had no memories of that night, and woke up in his place in the Agency dorms, missing a couple of 10,000 Yen, and his hair inches shorter than they were previously.

Dazai admitted to drinking the same amount as he did that night, and even recalled everything they did with clear accuracy like how Doppo threw away 10,000 Yen at a vending machine that wouldn't accept his bills, because it's not built that way; and how he cut off his own hair because he got pissed at it for tickling his arms.

Doppo vowed to always drink two glasses less than Dazai whenever they hung out after work. 

Tonight, however, Dazai's alcohol tolerance has taken a dip from his usual; probably reduced by his emotional turmoil and lack of self-awareness. If Doppo was worried earlier, now he was _deeply_ concerned. The rare solemn Dazai, he can handle, but a full on depressed one? It was unheard of.

This was untouched and unexplored territory. For a brief moment, Doppo heavily considered calling out Chuuya. The other's presence always seemed to trigger something primal in Dazai's mind, so maybe having him around would waken something familiar in the latter.

As Dazai hollered for another glass, Doppo put his foot down. He grabbed the cup from him and said, "I think that's enough from you."

"Kuniiiikidaaa-kuuuun," Dazai slurred. "You promised to treat me today. I really _fucked_ up big time this time! If I deserved to live before, I absolutely need to die now." He dropped his head onto the table and giggled softly. "Kuniiiiiikida-kuuuuun you're shining, no - glowing. You're glowing so bright, so pretty."

He wiggled his fingers around Doppo's face as though to mimic the sparkling, and hiccuped.

Doppo sighed. He said he'd treat him to a _couple_ of drinks not enable him to be black-out drunk to forget. As much as he wanted to help Dazai come to terms with whatever family problem he ran away from, Doppo also had a budget to stick to, and they were heading way too close to breaking the ceiling.

Once the food arrived, Dazai woke up from his temporary alcohol induced coma and shoved some Okonomiyaki into his mouth. Doppo reeled back in horror, Dazai wasn't bothered by the burning hot octopus in his mouth as he chewed.

He was that far gone into his despair.

"Am I a bad person?" Dazai mumbled with chopsticks in his mouth.

"On many occasions, you're a horrible person," Doppo said truthfully. "Although I wouldn't say you are inherently bad."

Dazai giggled, and leaned affectionately at Doppo 's arm. "Aaaaaaand that is why I loooooooove you, Kuuuuunikida-kuun. You don't ask questions but you treat me nicely. You treat me to food and drinks every time I'm sad. You don't ask questions," he rambled on. "I should tell you something because you're nice to me -"

Doppo frowned, surprised that Dazai was actually going to open up to him. Granted it was under the influence of alcohol, but it still counted right?

"I should tell you -" he hiccuped "-about how I'm a horrible brother and how I pushed my cute baby brother away for the _second_ time."

Suddenly, a light bulb flickered in Doppo's mind. He had a name for this new mood. It was avoidant behavior. This was it! Dazai was running away from his brother, and now he's facing an internal crisis he couldn't handle without alcohol involved.

He brought Dazai out to drink to help him sort out his feelings and thoughts silently. He never imagined that Dazai would actually say something about his problems because he rarely did. Despite this rare opportunity, Doppo thought it predatory to fish out personal information from his partner when he's not in his right mind.

He and Dazai were never personal. He didn't want to be personal when the latter is in this state. "I – I really don't need to hear it Daza -"

"I'll tell you because you've always taken care of me," Dazai interjected. "I'll tell you because I like you Kunikida-kuuuun and Tsunayoshi said I – that I should - forget about him, and he'll forget about me. He said never to find him."

"You know why?" he said while poking Doppo's cheek. "Do you know why Kuunii-kidaaaaa?? Do you want to know, Kunkida? Do you? Do you, Kunida?"

"Why?" he grumbled.

Dazai laughed loudly which gathered the attention of everyone else in the bar. "Because I didn't answer him! I was _scared_. I couldn't give him the one thing he deserves after everything I put them, _him_ , through! I was terrified. Me! The guy who planned everything down to a microdot against the Guild. Me! Who took down Fyodor and locked him up."

"Me…" Dazai stared at his reflection on the empty whiskey glass, "A _fucking_ coward."

Dazai sniffed and stuffed some more Okonomiyaki in his mouth as tears pooled in his eyes. "It's not like I didn't want to go back. I wanted to! I staged an escape, they beat me, I tried again, and they beat me. Then they beat someone else. Every time, instead of me it was -'' he suddenly stopped to fight off a shudder until he chewed on his chopsticks. "I couldn't do it anymore… Not for them, not for me. Life wasn't worth it anymore… and there was no way I could go back..."

Doppo lowered his eyes and placed a comforting hand on Dazai's shoulder. The brunette shook, unable to fight the tears he buried deep within.

"I miss him, Kunikida," he sighed. "I miss mama, I miss my little brother, I mi - You know what, forget Iemitsu, he was never home. Fuck that guy. I cared for Tsuna and Mama because he wasn't around. Always missing that fucker."

"I wanted to see them but - I can't - not after everything I've done. They'll hate me. If Tsunayoshi found out, he'd - he'd really wish I was dead. And Mama?" Dazai gasped. "I can't do that to her, not after I disappeared. Kunikida I don't - I don't know what to do."

Doppo didn't mean to do it, but his training as a detective made him deduce the life Dazai had even though his ramblings were pretty incoherent. Dazai loved his family, he _hated_ his father for being an absentee parent, and that he was probably abducted as a young child. Tortured most likely, and did things his old self and family would never approve of.

He was ashamed, and he regretted every second of it.

This was beyond what Doppo signed on for tonight. This was not Dazai anymore, it was the kid he used to be that was too broken to return to his old life and instead grew to be a monster many feared.

Doppo grit his teeth. All this time, he never knew Dazai kept something so heavy to himself. He doubted anyone in Port Mafia knew of it too given how distraught Dazai was in sharing it. "I… don't have a lot of experience with family but if what you say is true, I'm sure he'll come and find you. He's your brother. He'll want to know. I know I would but we can't dictate how he feels afterwards," he said truthfully. "You owe him some closure. _You_ owe yourself a chance to forgive yourself too."

Doppo paused, to give Dazai some time to process and respond until he heard a snort. Dazai had fallen asleep halfway through his advice and drooled on the table.

Doppo rolled his eyes and bit back an amused smile as he carried Dazai back to their dorms.

* * *

The following morning, Doppo was the first to wake in their communal dorm lodgings. He passed by Dazai's room to check up on him, and all he heard was the sound of vomiting and a loud incoherent groan that translated to "Go away" or "Leave me alone", whichever it was, Doppo was assured that the young, terrified Dazai had receded back to memory.

He didn't know if Dazai remembered anything from last night, but he figured he'd find out when the latter waltzed in the agency with his usual chipper, suicidal self.

Doppo went to work as soon as he arrived. Ranpo immediately ran through new unsolved cases on his desk and threw out the uninteresting ones to Dazai's desk. Kenji walked in with pastries and handed them out to everyone as a greeting.

Yosano's heels clicked as she entered and demanded for morning coffee before she disappeared in the infirmary. Atsushi and Kyoka arrived together, as they always did, and earnestly asked for work from Doppo .

"Is Dazai-san alright?" Atsushi asked as he took a seat beside Doppo . "I heard him mouthing off in his room before we left."

"He's fine. He got too into it last night and passed out. It'll be a miracle if he gets here before lunch."

Doppo totally jinxed himself for saying that, because Dazai did not show himself in the office that day, nor the day after that. Doppo left the bastard a hundred missed calls and a thousand messages just to get a response. He even barged into his dorms just to drag him to work, but found him missing.

Dazai only left a single note on his center table to inform them of where or what he was doing - _Off to fix myself. I'm fine. Be back in a few days._

Doppo tore the paper in half and screwed worrying about his partner. If Dazai didn't want to be found, then he wasn't going to put in the effort. He had papers to finish.

Doppo angrily made his way to the office, grumbling and cursing Dazai's usual antics under his breath. His steam only simmered away when he spotted two teenagers hanging out in front of the agency's door.

One of them was a tall male with spiky black hair, and carried a shinai bag over his shoulder. The other had spiky light brown hair and eyes so big they looked like a child's. The brown haired one fidgeted nervously on the hem of his jacket as he contemplated on knocking or not against the door.

"What can I do for you?"

Both of them snapped their attention towards him, both shocked and surprised. The raven tilted his head at him, curious, inquisitive eyes studying him closely; while the other's teeth chattered. "Ah - we were waiting for someone! But we probably arrived too early. I was uh - nevermind! W - We can come back later, right Yamamoto?"

"What?" the taller of the two scoffed. "No way! You decided on this, and we're going to do this."

"You two are here for the _Armed Detective Agency_ right?" Doppo asked. "Because the last time someone arrived this early they were actually waiting for the tailor downstairs."

"Yes! I mean - no? Not the tailor… The Armed Agency!" the brunette said, obviously nervous. "We're looking for uh… Osamu... Dazai?"

"You're Tsunayoshi." Doppo gaped. Dazai's brother looked very different to the person he imagined with just the older in mind. Tsunayoshi looked and felt so far removed from the Dazai he knew.

Tsunayoshi blinked, shocked. Then a smile tugged at his lips, flattered. "He told you about me?"

Doppo scoffed. "If you mean _cried_ about you while he got drunk, then yes. He told me about you."

"H - He got drunk?!"

"Don't worry about it," he said dismissively. "It's the way he copes with untouched emotions. He was really torn up about what you said."

Tsunayoshi's eyes shimmered, and he turned away to wipe out the tears. Doppo figured Tsunayoshi was probably the more emotional one of the two. Quite possibly the _only_ emotional one of the two.

"I'll fix you two something to drink," he said as he invited them in. "Make yourself comfortable. Dazai always comes in late so it'll take some time. There's a dinner downstairs if you want something more filling. I recommend getting their curry."

Tsunayoshi's eyes sparkled in gratitude, while Yamamoto checked the place with keen interest. Doppo answered much of the raven's questions, some he recognized as too forward about how the Agency worked, but nevertheless answered.

After sometime Doppo learned that Dazai's real name was actually Sawada, _Osamu Sawada_. He disappeared when he was eleven, and that he never returned so they assumed him dead. He confessed that he acted cold and harsh towards Dazai when they met because he too didn't know how to face the fact that his brother's been alive this whole time.

Doppo didn't fault him for that and shared his _insight_ and observation that Dazai also had the same problem. Dazai had a habit of skipping work, but his current disappearance at least had valid reasons this time.

The other agency members started to file in and recognized the new faces. Atsushi was overjoyed when he realized Tsuna was in the office, and sparked small talk about personal stories about Dazai. Atsushi had more to offer because of Tsuna's young, unreliable memories, but he was more than happy to know all the things about his brother. 

Kyoka noticed Yamamoto's shinai and they too bonded over their skill with the sword. Junichiro and his sister, curious about them, also sneaked in to introduce themselves.

"Gooooood morning fellow detectives!" Dazai waltzed in with a bright grin, seemingly back to his usual cheeky self. He hadn't noticed Tsunayoshi or Yamamoto in the waiting area, and Doppo didn't want to ruin his mood right away.

"The sun is out and shining, my skin is flawless and I have discovered a new way to beautifully and painlessly kill myself! I would need bleach and some pain killers," he said without missing a beat, which earned him no sympathy from anyone, except Tsunayoshi who grew pale at the mention of death.

"Kunikida!" Dazai shouted. "I've already drunkenly confessed my undying love for you, would you like to commit double suicide with me!"

Doppo sighed. "Of all the days you decided to be fashionably late and talk about suicide" - Dazai echoed fashionably under his breath, and proudly tugged at his collar - "It was the day when your brother decided to see you."

Dazai's grin slipped, and his eyes suddenly morphed into the very same terrified eyes Doppo only saw when the former was drunk on whiskey and sake. "He's here?" He glanced over at the waiting room, where the younger agency members mingled with Tsunayoshi and his friend.

"H – Hey, nii-san."

Dazai froze when he heard Tsunayoshi's voice and instinctively turned his back. He shook his head stiffly at Doppo, silently telling him that he was _not_ ready for this.

Doppo rolled his eyes and pulled Dazai with him into the personnel only door. They passed by the others where Tsunayoshi watched their retreat with confused chocolate colored eyes.

"Uhm… Will nii-san be alright?"

"They'll be back," Atsushi said. "Dazai-san's just unsure of what he should do after you met, he's probably nervous about you being here too"

Tsunayoshi chuckled. "So I've heard. I guess nii-san isn't as heartless as I thought he was."

Atsushi laughed dryly. "Ha ha… who knows…?”

Meanwhile, behind the door, Doppo dealt with Osamu Sawada. _Now_ he had a proper name for it. "Fuck, you were right, he was going to find me. Wh – what do I do? Kunikida?"

"You're asking me? Aren't you supposed to be the smarter one?"

"Aha!" Dazai pointed an accusatory finger at him. "So you admit I am smarter than you!"

"I never said you weren't!" he shouted. "But that's not what we're talking about is it?! Your brother is waiting for you out there, willing to give you a second chance. You can't run away from this. Not again."

Dazai clicked his tongue and his left eye twitched.

Doppo raised his head, a little proud that he caught that cue. Dazai did not expect this to happen.

"You cried to me two nights ago about how much you missed him, how much you wanted to see and explain to him," he said. "This is your chance."

"He'll hate me."

"He really will if you don't go out there now...”

Dazai palmed his face. "No, you're right. I'm being an idiot. He deserves something from me at least. You're a really great friend Kunikida."

"And you owe me for two night's tab."

"You said that was free!"

"It was until you got black out drunk for ordering not just sake, but a _gold label whiskey_ behind my back!"

Doppo reached for Dazai's neck, and Dazai ducked under his arm to escape back into the office.

Dazai approached Tsunayoshi slowly, with a hand behind his neck, bashful. They greeted each other awkwardly until Tsunayoshi dove in for a hug. Dazai very reluctantly returned the embrace until he sagged into the warmth and squeezed his brother close to him.

Doppo couldn't help but smile at the reunion unfolding before him. Dazai deserved this. He deserved to be happy for real.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the late upload! I lost my flash drive where I kept most of my fics (my cat played with it one night and hid it under the couch) and I only just found it today. To apologize for the delay I'll be posting double chapters, meaning there won't be an update this Wednesday. 
> 
> I really liked this chapter for some reason. I've never written for Kunikida before nor have I read a lot of fanfiction with his POV so this was a big throw in the dark. It's easy to understand his characteristics are when you read the wikia or watch the show, but to actually embody that in writing? Hard.


	7. Dazai and the Coward's Way Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Osamu Sawada died so that Osamu Dazai could live. 
> 
> As Dazai sat across the room where his younger brother sat, these parts of himself can't help but outrun the truth of why he never really returned to them.

“I’ll be outside if you need anything, alright?” Yamamoto, which Osamu learned was the raven haired boy’s name, said as he saw them off by the door.

Tsuna nodded and gave his friend a little wave before he joined Osamu inside a small room with two-toned beige and blue walls and emerald green tiles. The room had two couches and a small wooden table between which made it conclusive for private discussions – like right now.

Tsuna sat across him, still reluctant to meet his eyes despite their rather heartfelt reunion earlier. The distance probably meant nothing, but Osamu recognized it as a symbol of their broken relationship. They’ve grown apart as individuals, even though they used to be inseparable.

He and Tsuna shared everything with, and depended on each other. Tsuna was a fragile child who got bullied a lot for his clumsiness and lack of self-confidence; while Osamu was the brave and confident one that beat up anyone that called his brother No-Good.

Regardless of how much they tried to convince themselves and each other that not much has changed, something did. On the surface it may not be visible, but on the inside, Osamu knew the Tsuna that sat across him wasn't the one he left behind.

Tsuna's eyes were still as wide and hopeful than before. It was the very same eyes that had the uncanny ability to read behind a person's mask, and saw through lies. Those eyes once looked at Osamu like he was the greatest thing on earth. If Tsuna looked at him with those eyes again, he doesn’t think he’d be able to hide the truth.

Osamu didn’t want to lie to him, but if Tsuna knew what he did to get to this point, he feared that Tsuna wouldn’t see him as anything but a monster. Tsuna might never even give him a chance to explain himself if he did. It also didn't help that Osamu didn’t regret anything. He didn’t regret bloodying his hands to live, he didn’t regret joining Port Mafia, and he absolutely didn’t regret leaving that life behind.

He was afraid to tell Tsuna. He was afraid to meet those eyes of his again. He wanted to run away. It'll be so easy to do, since he'd gotten quite good with it.

_Coward._

Hidden behind Tsuna's eyes that remained as bright as when he last saw it, Osamu also saw a flicker of defiance and calm anger. He knew it was directed at him. Tsuna just kept it to himself.

“So uh… This is kind of weird isn’t it?” Tsuna laughed, strained and unsure of how he started their conversation.

“It is,” he said with a soft chuckle of his own. Tsuna returned his smile, and very faintly caught his eyes. The younger instantly looked away.

Silence settled between them again, and Osamu shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He didn’t like this lack of movement between them, and tried his earnest to keep it light between them.

“H - How has Tsu-kun been?! Have you gotten any cute girls yet? I can’t have my one and only brother falling behind at his age. It is an essential part of your journey to adulthood to reel in a few hearts, break a few others, and –” he stopped himself when Tsuna’s attention snapped at him, completely thrown off by the former’s sudden jovial verbosity.

“Sorry, I’m actually… not sure how to go about this. I haven’t exactly been honest.”

“I’ll say,” Tsuna said with an unusual bite in his voice. “You were missing for a long time. We thought you were dead. It’ll be… a long story, and it'll be hard for both of us so starting like this is fine.”

Osamu nodded. It was unfair for them to just get into the swing of things without reconnecting properly first. He also didn't want to drop heavy truths on Tsuna's lap right away. He couldn’t do that to him. Still, the mature response from Tsuna surprised him. The six year old he remembered would have cried at the mere thought of being in a situation like this. “So… have any girlfriends yet?”

Tsuna’s cheeks burned. "N – No! None at all!”

“Boyfriends then?”

“ _NII-SAN!_ ”

“One can never be too sure nowadays,” he continued with the light hearted teasing, which further embarrassed the younger. “I’ve seen two different, very attractive looking men that are equally concerned for your well-being since we reunited. It honestly makes me jealous your love life is flourishing so well. Although I usually prefer women, I won’t judge your tastes Tsu-kun.”

“Nii-san please, Yamamoto and Gokudera are close friends,” Tsunyoshi begged with hands over his face. “I’ve known them since high-school.”

“Sorry, sorry, I was just messing with you,” he said. “But that’s some improvement! The Tsuna I know never had any friends.” Tsuna sighed at the sad reminder. “You said you were here for a job? Right? Are they helping you with it?”

Tsuna rubbed his cheek. “Yeah, something like that.”

“It’s a bit odd though, going as far out into the seaside for a job. Couldn’t you get a job in some convenience store back home? You’re still technically a minor…” Osamu speculated out of habit. “Does Mama know?”

“She knows,” Tsuna said. “But I can’t tell you what that job is, sorry.”

Osamu narrowed his eyes at Tsuna, curious, but dismissed the thought for later. “That’s alright. I understand company policies, but if you ever need help the Agency is with you."

"Aren't you a detective agency though?"

"More or less," Osamu sighed. "It's only a detective agency for Ranpo, but for the rest of us we do errands or cases the police are too laz– I mean _too busy_ to handle.”

Tsuna chuckled, seemingly able to understand the unsaid joke there. “Speaking of lazy, you sure haven’t changed. Kunikida said you still have a habit of being late, and that you disappear on jobs often. Atsushi said you pass all your work to him too, and then Tanizaki said that you use him as bait all the ti –”

“STOP!” Osamu pleaded with his arms out. Tsuna laughed, and they both relaxed into their seats as the first obstacle between their nerves fell. “You mustn't listen to them, they’re deliberately making me look bad in front of you!”

“They don't need to. I know how lazy you can get. You skipped classes a lot back then too."

"That's because school _was_ boring and no one liked me. What reason do I have to stay around for them?"

"No one likes you because you acted like you're the smartest person in the room.”

“I _was_ the smartest person in the room!”

Tsuna smiled, silently agreeing with him but left the compliment unsaid. “Everyone here really respects you though, nii-san, Atsushi most of all.”

Osamu scoffed. "If that were true then they'd treat me better than they do."

Tsuna chuckled. “Maybe if every compliment didn't go straight up your ego they would. But yes, they like you around here, even Kyoka-chan. Even though she said you saved her from a death sentence…?"

Osamu flinched. Did Kyoka tell Tsuna about the Guild? About their relation to the Port Mafia? He tried to keep a neutral face and put on a mask in front. Tsuna did not need to know about that part of his life. At least… not yet. "She's joking. I just saved her from a madman with a knife is all.”

Tsuna's smile twitched. "Well, that’s good. She’s a nice kid. A little confused on how to interact with others, but it's cute. It reminds me of my kids back at home.”

“Well, Kyoka’s a bit of a rough ca – _wait_ – _kids_?!” Osamu cried. “You have kids?! Aren’t you seventeen? You said you didn't have a girlfriend!”

“The – They’re not my kids. They’re just kids living with Mama and me,” the younger said. “Like babysitting! _Babysitting_!”

Osamu sighed in relief while Tsunayoshi calmed down. A still silence hovered over them again, and Osamu felt that their conversation just now was enough. He had to come straight, and Tsuna too looked just about prepared to listen.

“You’ve really grown huh?” Osamu said with a sullen smile that made Tsuna sit upright. “The Tsuna I remember would cower at the smallest bit of responsibility. Now you’re babysitting two children, _and_ helping out friends in a city far away from home.”

“It’s really not much…” he mumbled. “You’ve grown too.”

Osamu smiled, appreciative, “I guess…” Unfortunately his growth was for the worse rather than the better. As he thought back on his past, Osamu sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He really can’t do this. Not now.

“It’s alright, Osamu-nii,” Tsuna said with that smile that eased Dazai off his worries when they were younger. It still had the same power as before, yet it did more than just that. Osamu felt like he could tell Tsunayoshi anything and he’ll understand. He’ll understand why Dazai had to stay away.

“I’m sorry, Tsuna…” he said with his head bowed in apology. “I should’ve gone back.”

Tsuna moved from his seat and settled beside him, holding the other's hand as he did. Osamu welcomed the touch, missing the warmth of family for as long as he can remember. “Tell me.”

So he did.

After they were abducted, Osamu and his class were kept in a room for about three days. Then they were sent away to places unknown for the next following days. No one knew why or what they wanted, so they panicked, except for Osamu who kept his cool and assessed the situation. He observed and waited. They didn't harm them unless they disobeyed anyway.

Eventually, they were occasionally taken in and out of the group, mixing with several other children that had been taken prior, and taken into a new location. Their abductors actively sabotaged the trail they might've left behind, and planted multiple false trails for them to be distracted with as well. After a few weeks, they stopped moving and were separated into permanent groups of three to four people each.

They stayed longer in each new area, for about a week each, until they settled on an unknown place for months. With a more permanent prison, Osamu was able to make out the guards routines and some of the corridors that may lead to freedom.

He bided his time and waited until they fell into a habit of rest. Once they did, Osamu made a run for it. The other kids were too scared to trust him so he left them behind. They were right not to, because he got caught before he made it past the first gate.

Broken bones, a bleeding lip, a bruised eye, and dozens of cuts across his skin. They tried to beat him into submission, but Osamu kept going. He tried again. He was kicked down. He tried again. He was thrown against the wall. Again and again until the punishment just became part of the routine. Eventually, Osamu grew numb from the pain and simply acted based on a resolve that burned inside him.

He wanted to get out of here. He _needed_ to get out of here so he could see his brother and Mama again. Soon enough, their captors realized he was never going to stop. His resolve burned too bright. So, to make him listen, they started beating the other kids instead.

They never touched him again, but someone else suffered for his stubbornness.

Tsuna gasped, and Osamu closed his eyes trying to shut out the memory he buried a long time ago. Once, he may have pitied the lives of his fellow captives, but after everything he did, they just fell into place like another piece of the puzzle necessary to survive. At least, that's what Dazai thought.

Osamu Sawada still trembled whenever he remembered those days. “It was a nightmare…” he sighed. “They wouldn’t stop beating them, so I stopped. Just for a while. I couldn't be the reason they got hurt. But I didn't give up." He locked eyes with Tsuna. “What I tell you next, is… not easy. Do you still want to continue?”

Tsuna's lips pursed into a thin line, then nodded.

“I knew they were hurting, so I didn’t escape again unless they agreed with my plan. We knew I would get caught, but I could feel it. I only needed five more tries. If they could survive that long, I can get us all out. At that time, they had enough too. Whatever I had in me that burned, sparked something in them too. They wanted to fight to stay alive. It was like nothing could stop us now that we’re all together on this. Then by the third time I got caught, one of them slipped away.”

Tsuna frowned, his chocolate colored eyes darkened.

“With the blood… I just stopped thinking and ran for it," Osamu continued. "I may have killed some guards with how desperate I was. I didn’t care, I just kept going, until I couldn't anymore. When I woke up, another one of them was dead.” He grabbed a fistful of his hair, once again horrified with his actions from years back. “I killed them. All because I was too stubborn to die… but even if I knew that could happen again, I just didn't stop. I didn’t want to. I'd get back to you and Mama even if it meant I could die trying.”

Osamu could barely remember the names and faces of those he was with. After the second died, Osamu had no one left to tie him down to basic morals. Without people to care about, he started getting more reckless. It soon became obvious that they were _letting_ him escape, like it was some kind of test. The layout of the rooms stayed the same, but every time he ran out there was always something new. Something that made it harder to beat; easier for them to catch him.

They used him to perfect their defenses. Once Osamu realized this, he made sure his captors knew that he knew too. They came to an agreement to work together and they treated him like royalty. They only ever saw a hostage in him and never the tactical smarts that he hid in his brain. They fed him charts and plans to correct. He aided them in doing more crimes just so he could survive.

He fooled them into believing he was one of them. Then when the opportunity came, Osamu rained hell on them. Before they even realized it was his doing, he'd already vanished. The place crumbled to pieces, burying people alive under the rubble and covered in their own blood.

“You killed them?” Tsuna asked, and Osamu had never felt so ashamed hearing those words from him. Tsuna was a pacifist. He never once approved of Osamu beating up his bullies. Now that he committed murder? Tsuna would never forgive him.

“I had no choice,” he said. “I had to do what I could to survive. I wanted to go home to you and Mama. I didn’t want to do it, but I –”

Tsuna’s brows furrowed deeper than before, his thoughts loud but unclear. “It’s…. you did what you had to.”

Osamu gaped. His mother just agreed to the death of hundreds of people… for his sake. Osamu really hated himself right now. Tsuna shouldn’t be forgiving him for something that should never be forgiven. “They deserved it. After everything they did to me and the others. It made me no better than them. That’s why, after I escaped, I followed my resolve and went back to Namimori. Three years later since I disappeared, I saw you and Mama.”

Tsunayoshi gasped. “Y - You came back? And you didn't talk to us?! You escaped, and you came back to us like you told yourself! If you told us, Mama and I would have forgiven you!”

Osamu shook his head. “ _No_ , you don’t understand. I saw _you_ and Mama, laughing. She was happy, you were too. I couldn’t take that away from you. Not after what I did.”

Tsunayoshi’s eyes shimmered with tears.

"It’s been three years. I knew the protocol,” Osamu continued with a sullen tone. “I was already presumed dead, and after what I did, I had no right to come back, so I left. I let you and Mama have the life you deserved without a murdered like me.”

Before Osamu could register Tsuna's reaction, a hard fist connected to his face. Osamu grunted as he fell back onto the couch with a broken, bleeding nose. Who knew his brother had the strength to do that now? Osamu opened his mouth to defend himself but Tsuna glared at him with pure rage. It was the emotion he’d hidden behind his eyes since the beginning.

It looked foreign in those pure chocolate eyes of his. Osamu barely recognized the person in front of him.

“You’re such an idiot!” the younger screamed, enough to make the hushed whispers of eavesdropping heads outside grow silent. “Give us the have a life we deserved?! We deserved to know you were alive! What kind of people did you think we were?! What family did you think you had?!”

“ _Any_ sign would’ve been enough," Tsuna cried. "Mama got sick because she couldn’t accept what happened to you–” Osamu's eyes grew. _Mama was sick?_ “–I had to take care of her because Iemitsu left the moment she got better! You were everything I had, and they took you away from me too! Did you even think about how we felt? How _I_ felt?”

Tsuna was crying at this point. Tears fell ceaselessly down his face with snot he had to sniff back up to avoid looking gross in front of his deranged older brother. Very carefully, Osamu ignored his bloody nose and wrapped his arms around Tsuna's trembling form.

“I _missed_ you so much…" Tsuna said. "I – Mama forgot all about you. Not by choice… she just couldn’t cope. I wanted her to remember, but it'll hurt her all over again. I couldn’t do that to her, so I had to forget and move on. H – How could you say I don't deserve to see you again?” Tsunayoshi asked. “You were everything to me. I’d give up anything just to see you.”

Osamu buried his head in Tsuna's hair, unable to keep himself from tearing up too. He'd been alone with thoughts and guilt for so long that he forgot why he escaped in the first place. He lived so that he could see Tsuna and Mama again, but he traded it all away for some false sense of mercy.

He saved no one but himself that day. Osamu lived, but Osamu Sawada died the moment he turned his back on them.

“I would’ve done anything to let you know,” he said with a shaky breath. “You were my baby brother, you know I’d do anything to protect you. At that time… I had to protect you from me. I had blood in my hands. I couldn’t – I couldn’t do that to you.”

They remained in each other’s arms, in complete silence for a few more minutes, until Tsunayoshi sniffed and retreated first. “I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have acted that way.”

“You had the right to be angry, I was selfish. You’re right, I didn’t think about your or Mama’s feelings,” he said. “I was scared, and I hated myself. To me, I no longer deserved to be your brother. If you looked at me with those eyes that saw the world in me, it would destroy me, so I ran, as far away as I could.”

 _Coward_.

“Then... you ended up here? In Yokohama?” Tsuna guessed while he pressed an expensive looking handkerchief under Osamu’s nose.

Osamu hesitated to answer right away.

After he threw away his second chance at life, the resolve that pushed him to live ran out. He no longer saw the meaning of life, nor his own. He decided that as a murderer, and a _coward_ , he didn’t deserve life. He wandered along, only stealing to live, prolonging his own punishment, until he got the idea to kill himself.

Thus began his recurring dance with suicide.

He’s tried it so many times now that Osamu pretty much lost count. He just can’t seem to die regardless of how much he courted death. At some point, his inability to die from just being beaten to death during his years of captivity suddenly made sense.

“You _what?!_ ” Tsuna grabbed Osamu by his shoulders, anger replaced with heavy concern and worry. "You decided that you’re not worthy of us anymore, so you left _and_ _then_ decided to kill yourself! After everything you’ve done? For living? For surviving? And you’re _still_ doing it?”

“I’ll stop now! I’ll stop now!” Osamu conceded with his hands half-raised. Of course, he’d try to kill himself after losing all hope. It seemed the perfect release after he struggled so hard to obtain what he wanted, only to lose it once he had it.

Osamu Sawada, terrified of himself and mere thought of death, died a coward. Osamu Dazai, who lost all meaning of life and couldn't die, desired it more than anything. Nothing was worth pursuing when it only prolonged his life so that he may suffer. Osamu had enough suffering for one lifetime. At least… at that time, it was appropriate. Now, courting death just felt like a habit he couldn’t break.

“Besides,” he said with a shrug. “I have one less reason to keep doing it now. I got you back, like I always wanted.” A feeling in Osamu's chest burned. A familiar burning, but icy cold flame that urged him back to life just when he’s about to cross-over.

Tsuna's eyes snapped to Osamu's forehead and gaped, like he just saw something. “Dying Will…”

The sensation fluttered away as Osamu's attention was pulled away from it and unto his brother who just muttered something aloud. "Dying Will?"

“It’s uh – nothing really, just a story my tutor told me,” Tsuna lied through the skin of his teeth. Osamu couldn’t help but narrow his eyes.

Tsuna had always been a terrible liar. His heart just couldn’t come up with a white lie for his life. It always got Osamu in trouble because Mama knew how to exploit it well. Which made him wonder, where did Tsuna learn to do it, and why was he lying now?

“What’s the story about?” he pressed, and Tsuna tried to dismiss it as some nonsense children's story.

“Just some gibberish about giving you another shot at life because your resolve – your Dying Will – won’t give up until you have what you truly yearn for.”

“But I yearned for death.”

Tsuna grimaced at the reminder, and Osamu apologized out of reflex. “Well, yes, but that's what your resolve turned into when you convinced yourself that you don’t deserve to live. At the very core, your heart and resolve has always been to come back to us."

Osamu thought himself foolish for believing some bedtime tale, but Tsuna didn't look like he found it as such. He believed in it. In the briefest moments he considered Tsuna's story was true, the cold burn in his chest sparked again.

Tsuna smiled just as it burned. He’d already forgiven Osamu for his mistakes. That was just the kind of person Tsunayoshi was. Osamu frowned.

He still had to tell him about the things he did with the Port Mafia. He wouldn't be able to forgive himself if he kept that part secret to him too. Not when Tsuna looked at him like the world again. The blood on his hands was too much for him to deserve those eyes.

“Tsuna there’s something else –” before he could finish, Yamamoto burst into the room together with the silver haired teen from the other day. Without meaning to, the appropriate nickname just came out of Osamu’s mouth. “Octopus head!”

“Gokudera!?” Tsuna cried. “Wh - why are you - did something happen?”

Gokudera’s eyes twitched at the mere sight of Osamu, then he pulled Tsuna closer, and acted reminiscent of the times Osamu defended his little brother. He whispered something into his ear, and Tsuna turned pale.

“That’s impossible…”

“That’s what I thought too, but…” Yamamoto mumbled. Osamu could hear it perfectly though, given his history of snooping where he shouldn't for the Port Mafia. “He sent Hibird. Something’s happened.”

“It’s trouble, Tenth.”

“Tsuna?” Osamu finally asked, when Tsuna looked like he swallowed a potato whole and the entire thing blocked his throat.

“W – I have to go,” the younger said with panic stricken eyes. “I’m sorry for leaving so suddenly. I want to tell you more, and I know you have more to tell me but… it’s a job emergency. I’ll be back okay? I’ll visit you here again.”

“What job emergency?” Osamu’s instincts kicked in before he could stop it. He practically demanded an answer. “Tsuna what’s going on?”

Tsuna held his tongue and turned away. Always a terrible liar. Tsunayoshi knew that, so in the event that he couldn’t lie, he just avoided answering all together.

“ _Tsunayoshi_ ,” – the younger frowned at the tone he used – “Tell me what’s happening. I can help you –”

Gokudera slapped his hand out of the way and pointed a stick of explosives towards him. “Remember what I said, _asshole?_ If you so much as touch him, I’ll kill you.”

“I’m his brother.”

“I don’t give a shit,” Gokudera shrugged. “You hurt, Tenth, you’re as good as dead to me.”

“Gokudera, chill out,” Yamamoto said in a soothing voice that even urged Osamu to concede. “We don’t need to fight anyone here. Our problem is out there.”

Tsuna sent Gokudera a look, and like a trained dog, the latter retreated his explosives and stormed out of the room. Yamamoto tipped his head at Dazai once then left. Tsuna trailed after them with his head hung low. He paused by the door and very briefly looked back at Osamu , “I’ll see you tomorrow, nii-san.”

Osamu shadowed after them until they reached the Agency’s door. He had a really bad feeling about this.

Atsushi who was seated by his desk walked over with a satisfied smile. “Did you manage to talk it over?”

“I'm... actually not sure,” Osamu said with a rare tone of uncertainty in his voice. “Yamamoto-kun mentioned something about a… Hibird? He looked very upset. Did any of you see anything out of place?”

Confused glances were exchanged in the room, but Kyoka raised her hand. “The loud silver head stormed in with a yellow bird on his shoulder. He was upset. The Kendoka became upset. They entered the room, and exited with Tsuna. He's also upset. I fear the bird brought in a bad omen”

“An omen of what?” Osamu wondered aloud, then from the far corner of the room, Ranpo guffawed.

“A few steps behind me as always, Dazai-san!” The greatest detective jumped off his desk and waltzed over. Ranpo had his spectacles on. “Your brother’s headed into a den of trouble. I wouldn’t worry about him though! He’s stronger than he looks. Yosano-san! You're going to be happy in a few hours.”

Osamu bolted out the door.

Atsushi and Kyoka ran after him while Kunikida yelled at them to think rationally about this. In the end, the idealistic man trailed after them in similar worry for the younger Dazai.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY ANSWERS AS TO WHAT HAPPENED TO DAZAI! Imagine if today wasn't double chapter? Last chapter would've been a great cliffhanger. But hey, I love you guys too much so I'll spoil you just this once. 
> 
> Alternatively called: "Drama Exposition - Angst" written by Osamu Dazai.  
> I couldn’t think of any other way to do this chapter other than make them talk so, sorry about paragraphs of exposition. Now the brother's know a bit of themselves and their current lives, but none of the juicy stuff. That’s drama fuel for the future so I ask for your patience. 
> 
> I once again tried to make Dazai's experiences pre-Mafia days as realistic enough to begin his change into the person that Mori met and groomed. He was basically just a broken kid that was carousing through life, trying to find death because he thought he deserved it after everything he did. Mori gave him a new purpose, but even that didn't satisfy what he was looking for. 
> 
> I know Dying Will doesn’t exactly work the way I made it so with Dazai’s "immortal life" but it just made sense? Tsuna’s Dying Will saved him more times than he can count against his enemies, so I’m just, okay Dazai get's one too. Sky flames amirite?


	8. Hibari and the People He Bit to Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hibari is off to investigate the Port Mafia on his own, and discovers that there may be more to this than meets the eye.

Pained grunts and muffled screams from the other side of the door alerted dozens of black-suited men. The room scrambled for weapons, while a runner escaped towards the door on the farthest end of the room in a hurry to inform their superior of the incoming threat.

Just as the runner disappeared, a body crashed through the front door. They all raised their guns and waited.

A tall, lean, black haired man, with slanted black eyes waltzed in the room, armed with black clad tonfas on either hand. He wore a black trench coat that seemed to billow behind him as he moved. A red armband with yellow lining was attached to his left arm with the words, _Disciplinary Committee_ written on it.

They opened fired.

Kyoya fearlessly met the bullets head on. He blocked each shot with a swing of his tonfa or with the protective layers of his coat. A few bullets grazed his arm and face, but none hit him hard enough to scare or incapacitate him.

Kyoya kicked the guns out of their hands, and quickly knocked them out. He whacked one across the face, chipping off a tooth or two with the strength of his hit, then jabbed his tonfa unto someone's chest, making them cough blood. He swiped under an opponent and crushed their windpipe. The man choked for air and pressed the trigger of his rifle on reflex. Chaotic fire rained all over the room, and people screamed either begging for mercy or because they got hit.

"Stop panicking! It's just one man!"

"We can take him!"

"Fire everything. Fire it all! Gun him down!"

Kyoya ducked under the heavy fire and rolled behind an overturned table. Purple light glimmered around his wrist as a small creature uncurled on his palm, like it had just woken from a nap. The animal made a soft squeaking noise. "Sorry to wake you, Roll, but I need your help. Needle sphere form."

The tiny animal scampered over Kyoya's shoulder and leapt into the air. It dispersed a purple haze which multiplied itself from one to a dozen in a blink of an eye. Stunned by the sudden appearance of hedgehogs in the room, the gunmen all changed their targets from one man to dozens of fur balls. Large metal coated spikes grew from the animals back and pierced through the wall, ground, and ceiling, knocking out the weapons in their hands.

Kyoya leapt out as the haze reverted the hedgehog back into a harmless creature on top of the former's head.

"What the fuck was that?!"

Kyoya knocked the air out of them with a kick, and the latter crashed unto a chair on the other end of the room.

"An ability user?!"

Metal smashed unto their skull and was slammed to the ground.

" _Impossible!_ "

Long chains dropped behind his tonfas, and in a simple twist of his feet, Kyoya swept those he hadn't bitten to death yet to _death_. They all fell defeated.

Roll squeaked on his head. "Herbivores."

The next floor had twice as many men than the last two, then at the very end of the hall was a door guarded by two hardened brawlers; one with a Mohawk and the other with a badly bleached hair. Their arm muscles appeared to flex every time they moved, and were armed with smaller firearms all around their limbs. He counted at least two pistols, and one sub machine gun and a machete each.

Kyoya ran directly towards his target room while Roll's needle sphere blocked out most of their fire. He threw out his chains like a whip to knock a couple out of his way, then Roll caught then between his spikes. Mohawk stomped over to intercept him, then threw a golden brass knuckle at Kyoya's face.

Kyoya staggered back, his nose bleeding at the impact and Mohawk howled. He snapped the broken bone back in place as though it was nothing and spat out blood. "I'll bite you to death."

Mohawk aimed for another punch, but Kyoya expected it. He side-stepped and wrapped the chains around the bigger man's arm, snapped Mohawk's knee with a powerful kick then pulled the latter's arm between his legs. Mohawk slipped on his dislocated knee and cried.

Badly bleached hair cover fired. Kyoya ran across the walls to dodge then drove a foot to the man's side. The small blades that adorned the soles of his shoes pierced through layers of clothes and skin, and badly bleached hair man bellowed. He flailed his arms in a panic as blood seeped through the wound.

Mohawk open fired from behind, along with his reinforcements. Badly bleached hair shouted as he too, took damage from the heavy fire. Kyoya booted bleached hair out, then bolted for another head on attack.

The skirmish between him and the reinforcements took less than a minute, with most of the gunners going down with just one blow to the head. Kyoya kneed the last person then walked towards the last door in the hallway. He realigned his left shoulder with a soft hiss.

Kyoya strode inside a well-furnished room, were the walls were lined with glass shelves filled with expensive memorabilia, antique weapons, and jeweled trinkets. Rolled beneath his feet was an intricately woven carpeted floor that was now, unfortunately, tainted with soot and dirt.

He stopped in the middle then glanced at a large cabinet to his left. Without warning he kicked the doors down and grabbed hold of a squeamish young man with glasses cowering inside the cabinet. He shoved the terrified man to the floor, and stepped on his back as the latter tried to crawl to safety.

"D – Don't kill me! Please!" the man begged. "I'm – I'm – useless! I ONLY DO THE BOOKS! I can be replaced b – but I – I can help you! I can give you money! I can make you rich, yes! The Boss won't notice the discrepancy at all! I'm very good at this, just please don't hurt me!"

Kyoya glowered, appalled by prey that begged for his life and shut him up with a strong thump to the head.

With all the nuisances gone, Kyoya took his time to look through the accounting books that were quickly deemed useless. He clicked his tongue, irritated that he came all this way for nothing.

Kyoya wasn't supposed to be on this mission. He preferred to work alone then, and he certainly preferred to work alone now. That did not change even as he took on the title of tenth generation guardian of the cloud. He much rather do missions on his own than with another guardian, and that put him at odds with the others.

The others, save for that Mukuro Rukudo, treated their little boss like he was a fragile thing and lingered around him like leeches. Their Boss was not _that_ weak, Kyoya knew that from experience and their years fighting alongside each other. Outside of Vongola, the kid remained as his horrified and panicked self that reminded everyone a lot of his middle school self, but when the need arose, Tsunayoshi took on the mask of confidence and power that Kyoya had come to respect.

Not that he'd ever admit it, nor did he expect Tsunayoshi to demand that from him.

Tsunayoshi and Kyoya sort of fell into a silent agreement that the latter would be allowed to do as he pleased as long as he was there when the former summoned him; and Decimo only ever asked for his presence whenever there's a problem he can't solve on his own.

Kyoya would've located The Book on his own with the Foundation if Tsunayoshi asked, but the boss was adamant about keeping civilians away from Mafia work. Tsunayoshi approved of the Foundation's creation for Kyoya sake, but he did not like employing their help. It placed unnecessary danger on their lives, and Tsunayoshi did not want to risk lives, regardless of how insignificant or important they were.

Kyoya didn't have the same sentiments and used the Foundation however he saw fit. None of his former discipline committee members seemed to have a problem with that, so he continued to use them wherever they were needed. However, as ordered by the Boss, Kyoya had to leave his trusted men behind.

The only reason he agreed to join a small team of guardians to Yokohama was the promise of fighting powerful opponents, which, knowing Tsunayoshi, had a large asterisk on it. Still Kyoya did as he pleased despite his rendered cooperation.

Port Mafia had been in the Foundation's radar since Kyoya learned of Abilities. Much like how the sky flames helped Vongola gain power, Abilities helped Port Mafia become its own deadly force. If left unchecked, their organization, along with their assorted gallery of ability users, could grow into a much bigger threat.

As much as Kyoya disliked his fellow guardians, he actually sympathized with their unified goal to return Vongola back to its roots. They all wanted Vongola to protect those that cannot, and defeat those foolish and arrogant enough to think they could beat up small animals just because they were bigger and stronger. Port Mafia was in danger of becoming the latter.

Even more so, if they secretly stole the Book as leverage to force Vongola out of power.

Kyoya had been infiltrating the lower echelons of Port Mafia to find a connection between the organization and the stolen reality warping Book. His search only managed to reveal two truths. The first being that Port Mafia was aware of the Book's existence, and second, they once held the White Beast of Calamity, which was rumored to be the guide towards the Book in their grasp.

Given Vongola and Port Mafia's history with each other, the latter may have crafted a plan to force the former into breaking the pact between them. Once Vongola acts against the clause agreed upon, Port Mafia was no longer bound to honor it as well. They could destroy Vongola here and steadily expand their influence where they couldn't before.

At first glance, the plan made sense, but Kyoya doubted that an organization of their reputation would resort to something so bland; much less go back on their word of peace. If Port Mafia wanted a fight, they'd just have done so.

Kyoya knew the demands made by the thieves already pointed out the Port Mafia was just a victim of this game as they were, but his instincts told him that there was more to it than just that. If someone wanted Port Mafia destroyed, they shouldn't have gone out of their way to involve the most powerful one to take them down.

As he flipped through the pages of a red columnar, a mysterious black envelope fell to his feet. The paper looked expensive to touch, and felt different than most envelopes. One might say the sender was one of expensive tastes. Kyoya carefully opened it and pulled out a black card with Vongola's nameless emblem, embossed in shiny marks of gold. He flipped it around, intrigued.

Hibird chirped from outside the window, and Kyoya quickly pocketed the letter in his coat. He sneaked a peak at their uninvited guests behind the curtains and recognized two profiles the baby convinced him to memorize in case he needed to prioritize stealth over combat. As much as he wanted to fight the right there and then, stealth proved more endearing than fighting if he wanted to continue pursuing this new trail.

* * *

Kyoya snapped his phone in half when it rang for the nth time today. They won't stop coddling him like he was a child. Truly, Kyoya hated team missions with a burning passion; most especially if it was one with Tsunayoshi's most loyal guardians.

The loud silver haired one always ran his mouth about their duty. He preached endlessly about Kyoya's duty as Tsunayoshi's strongest and his job to protect him. Kyoya often wondered if they vowed to guard the same person with how often the storm guardian referred to the small animal like he was powerless. Fortunately for them, neither actually liked the other so once they've made their opinions clear and never talked again.

Yamamoto was much more tolerable, but Kyoya loathed how the rain guardian found a way to make him listen and do as he wanted without ever asking for it.

The cheery swordsman had always attempted small talk with him, even though Kyoya clearly did not want it. Either Yamamoto was dumb or daft, he kept on pestering him until Kyoya realized the truth behind each approach. Yamamoto wanted something from him, and he had to read between the lines to figure what that was. If only it didn't appear as borderline manipulative, Kyoya would have applauded the young swordsman in figuring out a way to thread across his patience as lightly as he did.

Kyoya hated orders, and Yamamoto's words always seemed like a request rather than a directive. It made him feel as though he made the decision on his own rather than be strung along because someone said so.

He still found Yamamoto a nuisance despite this new found respect of his and this unfortunately backfired on him because it gave Tsunayoshi more power over him. Kyoya was no longer just a lone wolf, he was a hunter with a handler. The only one crazy enough to do so, and still survive interacting with him without being beaten to death was Yamamoto.

Kyoya learned to compromise with Yamamoto behind him; and going along with this mission he asked for several.

Kyoya only agreed to answer calls from Yamamoto, and only him, once every five hours. Yamamoto had called him ten times in the last hour. It was honestly a miracle he hadn't yet broken his phone before this. It broke their compromise and so, Kyoya broke any means the swordsman could to reach him.

If there was a problem with Tsunayoshi, then two doting guardians were enough to handle it. He had other things to worry about like the letter he'd found.

All of a sudden, Kyoya felt a massive wave of killing intent to his left. He rolled out of a blade's trajectory then raised his tonfa to block the very same blade aimed at his throat. He swiped under the black clothed assassin, who dodged and pushed down on him instead. Kyoya rolled back and tried to push his assailant away but was caught in the assassin's legs.

The assassin pinned his arms and legs down and inched the blade directly on his neck artery. If he moved, the cut would kill him instantly. He clicked his tongue, annoyed.

"You are a hard man to find," a middle aged man with grey, swept-back hair and a mustache, dressed in similar shade of black said. Another man with rusty red hair that wore a military green crop jacket stood right beside him with dual guns pointed at the raven haired male.

Kyoya was pulled up to his feet, but the knife remained on his throat, to face his captors. He chuckled and said, "No, you're just slow." Crop jacket's eye twitched and the assassin increased the pressure on his neck to make it bleed a little. "If it's a fight you want, then at least give me a fair start."

"I think not," the older man said. "You've taken out our small militias on your own. We don't take kindly to someone of such skill."

"I'm flattered, really, but if you won't hold back, then neither will I. Roll," his bracelet flared up in purple flames. "Cambio Forma."

Kyoya opened the sharp end of the tonfa's rear and elbowed the assassin behind him. The assassin cried at the blade that pierced their stomach, and fell back. Crop jacket opened fire in response to his comrade's distress, while Kyoya blocked his shots with one arm. He knocked out the assassin with a one strong blow to the head, and a kick to their chest for safe measure.

A stray bullet grazed his cheek and Kyoya wasted no time to deal with crop jacket as the latter changed magazines. Kyoya swiped his tonfas, which were suddenly littered with small blades by its sides, by crop jacket's hands and needle like blades wounded him enough to be unable to hold the guns properly.

Kyoya retracted the blades and bashed him across temple. Crop jacket fell unconscious at his feet. Kyoya glanced at the remaining Lizard that had a half smoked death stick between his fingers. "Elderly shouldn't smoke. It's bad for your health."

"A cigarette always tastes best after a job _._ "

"Little early for a celebration don't you think?"

"Ryuro Hirotsu," the man said as he threw the stick to the ground and put it out with a grind of his shoe. "It is an honor to meet the tenth generation cloud guardian of Vongola."

Kyoya raised a brow. They'd only arrived yesterday and Port Mafia's network already knew of them. Their information worked fast enough that it's almost impressive. As though to answer his silent inquiry, Hirotsu pulled out a black envelope from his coat. "Where'd you get that?" the raven asked.

"I assumed you already knew, seeing as it's your emblem."

"Was it?" Kyoya smiled. "Maybe if I bite you to death, it'll jog my memory." He lunged forward, his form becoming a blur at his speed.

Hirotsu held his ground and shoved an open a hand at Kyoya's chest. Purple threads erupted from his hand and spiraled around the younger's limbs.

Kyoya coughed out blood as his insides were hit with a powerful force that hurtles him towards a wall that cracked upon impact. He fell to his knees, still breathing thanks to the reinforcement his coat provided.

"Do you remember now, cloud guardian?"

Kyoya balanced himself on one good leg. "That all you got, Lizard? I didn't wait for this long to be disappointed you know."

Hirotsu smiled and beckoned for him to approach. Kyoya briskly walked closer while he studied the older man. Hirotsu was one face Hibari remembered in Reborn's files. He was an ability user, that much was clear, but as to how the ability worked escaped him

Hirotsu watched him intently, but with a stoic expression on his face. He kept his hands behind him as though to protect them. Kyoya dashed forward, careful of his bad leg, and assumed the same approach as earlier. Like he expected, Hirotsu bent low and drove an open palm towards Kyoya's chest.

Kyoya inched back, then slapped a handcuff on the other's wrist. He twisted around to dodge the other arm and locked another handcuff on it that multiplied from the other wrist. He slid to his knees and flicked another set of cuffs on the older's ankles. He multiplied the cuffs as high as he could to completely immobilize the Black Lizard commander.

Hirotsu whined as he tried to force his ability to destroy the cuffs, but failed. Powerful as they were, abilities were greatly limited by their host's bodies, and Hirotsu's was limited to touch.

"Now then," Kyoya said as he grabbed the black letter from Hirotsu's coat. "Mind telling me where you got this?"

"Even in defeat, you lions still mock us," Hirotsu said.

"If I were mocking you, you'd know, so let's try that again," he pointed the sharpened edge of his tonfa to Hirotsu's monocle eye, "where'd you find this?"

"In the docks. On one of the boats set to leave yesterday, it was in one of the crates."

Kyoya frowned. That was Gokudera's assignment. He reached for his phone to confirm with his subordinates until he palmed empty pockets. _Right_ , he sighed. He destroyed it just a few minutes ago.

"What do you want from us, Vongola?"

"Still not my name," Kyoya said as he left. "And we want nothing. Don't take it personally. It's just business." He jumped off the building, using Roll to cushion for his fall then he immediately listed off the targets from the top of his head.

* * *

Kyoya found another envelope in the vaults of a small loan company under Port Mafia's protection.

Like he suspected, whoever stole the Book knew and expected them to fight against their demands, and planned accordingly. If Vongola wouldn't fight Port Mafia, then it would be the other way around. It overturned everything Kyoya knew of the situation. The thieves did not want to destroy _just_ Port Mafia, they wanted to destroy both families. He failed to deduce the reason, but that hardly mattered to him.

This was a big problem.

Whoever masterminded this game knew what they were doing. The masterminds stole the Tri-ni-sette Book, and decided that the best way for them to keep their control of it would be to eliminate the only two powers capable of stopping them should they ally themselves with each other.

Kyoya smiled, elated at the thought of beating up more powerful people. Experience, and memories from the future, had taught him that smart people tended to be far more worthy opponents in combat than those that were simply brute force. Perhaps he shouldn't regret coming along for this mission after all.

Kyoya escaped from the loan company over the rooftop, and down unto the hidden alleyways across the city. While he was not that well acquainted with them unlike Namimori, he knew very few people actually noticed those that walked in the shadows. He stopped in his tracks when a man a few centimetres smaller than him, dressed in so much black that his brightly colored, orange hair, popped out more and highlighted his facial features so clearly. Kyoya doubts he'd forget that face so soon.

It was one of Port Mafia executive.

Kyoya can't help smiling. Finally, someone worthy of biting to death. Very slowly, Kyoya raised his weapons close to his side and properly hid them under his coat that hung over his shoulders.

"So you're the one causing a mess round our turf?"

"Sorry, I don't know what you're talking about," he said. "I'm on the disciplinary committee of my school, a few ruffians in our school trip decided to run off while we were on tour. I was just looking for them."

The ginger haired man chuckled. "You think I'm an idiot? Hirotsu said he got taken down by a brat with the exact arm band as you. You're Vongola."

Kyoya's eyes narrowed into excited slits. "Not Vongola. That's the Boss. I'm shocked your network hasn't given you my name yet."

The other flinched, offended. "They're working on it! It's not my fault your damn family hides everything behind hundreds of encryption codes and titles!"

"And yours doesn't? No wonder we've beaten you in the past."

"We're very different from what you remember," the man said with a cocky grin as his body emitted a faint red glow.

Kyoya raised his weapons. "Cambio _Fo –!_ " The ginger was suddenly on his face with a gloved fist to his face. He clenched his teeth, _t_ _oo fast,_ as he crashed unto a trash bin that dented upon impact. Blood dripped down the raven's nose while he regained his footing and glared at his opponent who still had that hellish hue around him.

"Hirotsu also told me," the Mafioso said while he fixed his gloves. "Never to give you a chance to open your little bracelet, so I won't."

Kyoya strode forward but the injuries he sustained against Black Lizard, combined with the fatigue he'd accumulated over excessive flame use against the other skirmishes today, finally caught up to him. He stumbled on his step, as his vision blurred. He clutched his stomach and felt a piercing pain run through his skin. Hirotsu did him in earlier didn't he?

"Cambio _–_ "

"Nuh-huh, you brat!"

Kyoya muscled tensed as he felt a megaton of weight land on his shoulders and forced him down to his knees. The floor caved in under the pressure and left a circular crater beneath him as he fell down on his chest, unable to battle the gravity that kept pushing him down. Kyoya bit his tongue to prevent any noise of defeat from coming out.

"Don't worry, Vongola, I won't kill you," the other said. "Our Boss wants a meeting with yours, so I need you alive."

He pointed a finger at Kyoya and flicked him towards a wall. Kyoya jerked to the side as an intense pain erupted from his chest, and breathing suddenly became twice as hard to do. He was thrown back to the ground, and Kyoya felt his shoulder dislocate on impact. The ginger kicked his head in, cutting a large gash across his forehead. Then to hammer the final nail in the coffin, he snapped the leg Kyoya had been limping on since his fight against Black Lizard.

Kyoya finally cried aloud, much to the other Mafioso's glee. A small yellow bird chirped in panic above them, then flew off to the only place Kyoya tried to train his feathered companion to _never_ go to when he's in trouble.

"Woops, my hand slipped," he grabbed a fistful of Kyoya's hair and punched him on the chest for added measure. "That's for my comrades you sent to the hospital today you monster."

Kyoya spat blood at the ginger, who stepped back, disgusted by the saliva and blood on his face. As if he'd let those idiots catch him dead in a trash bin. Fighting through the broken bones and punctured lung, Kyoya raised his arms in attack position. " _I'll_ _bite you to death_."

The Bracelet of the Cloud Version X burst into purple flames, activated by his pride. Roll appeared with a deep seethed frown on its adorable little face a few inches away from the other. "Nii!"

"What –?" he gaped. "Is _that_ a hedgehog? _"_

Roll flipped on his back and extended his back quills to push Nakahara further away from his partner. The ginger haired man ducked under the spikes, but lost his hat in the process. "My hat!" he cried with a hand outstretched toward it. "Ooooh you're going to get it you fucking bastard."

The ginger changed his gravity and jumped high enough to build momentum to force Roll back into a purple haze. He changed his gravity again to speed his way unto Kyoya, but several spherical needles appeared along his way. They grew in size to prevent the other's approach, and wound him enough to retreat back to his hat.

Kyoya wiped the blood of his mouth and raised his bracelet to his chest. There was no way he'd go down without a fight against this disgusting roach. " _Cambio Forma_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alternatively titled: "Hibari being a badass" 
> 
> If he tried really hard, he could've taken down the entire Port ngl. Heavily debated on matching him against Akutagawa rather than Chuuya given that Black Lizard sort of works under Akutagawa/Higuchi's division, but decided on angry ginger in the end. Because I wanted to beat HIbari up after he beat everyone else up. Its the battle of the strongest Port member vs strongest Vongola guardian. How ever will it end?? Place your bets down below folks!
> 
> Squint really hard to find the platonic (or is it?) KHR pair in Hibari's inner monologue. See you next update!


	9. Yamamoto and the Rain's Duty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To be the shower that washes everything away was the rain guardian's role. Yamamoto thought otherwise. He'd be the rain that washes away the distance between himself and the other guardians.

Takeshi knew this was going to happen.

It didn't even matter that it was Hibari that was in a pinch. Takeshi _knew_ , and he still let it happen. He had complete faith in Hibari's skill as the strongest guardian. He never required their help before so this mission shouldn't be any different. However, given the current disarray among them guardians, Takeshi couldn't help but worry.

One would think that after they've inherited the title of guardians from the previous generation, their ragtag group of teenagers would grow closer to each, and start acting as a unit. Unfortunately it only pushed them further apart. It wasn't that surprising since none of them were actually loyal to Vongola, and they kept their relationship as strictly professional.

He and Ryohei were civilians brought in into this life because they were Tsuna's friends. They didn't have ties with the Mafia and as such, were free to pursue life outside of it. They still intend to do their duties to Vongola, but both of them wanted something more than just that.

Ryohei pursued a university scholarship in Tokyo, and secretly took lessons on the Italian language and international law (which he was terrible at) so that he can be more useful in the future. At Tsuna's insistence, Takeshi accepted a baseball scholarship three cities away from Namimori. He would've stayed in high school with them but Tsuna didn't want to deny him his first passion when the opportunity was there.

Gokudera, being born and raised in the Mafia life, didn't understand how he and Ryohei could leave Tsuna behind after everything they did together. He didn't understand how civilian life could be far more interesting than the Mafia. Like a true right hand, he remained by Tsuna's side even though the latter also wished for Gokudera to explore a life outside of the Mafia. Gokudera tried, but only if Tsuna was there by his side. They attended a normal secondary school in Italy so that Tsuna can be close enough to train and tutored on his formal duties as Vongola.

Mukuro could care less about his duties. A number of allied families opposed his induction as the Guardian of the Mist because of his previous crimes against it, so Mukuro stayed away from Italy as much as he could. He remained in Japan with his family and friends in Kokuyo High, keeping busy with his own agenda. He welcomed Tsuna's requests, but he didn't do them unless he felt like it, or the request aligned with his personal interests.

Chrome decided to stay with Kyoko and Haru in Namimori High after Mukuro wished her to live life independently from him. She's eager to do anything for Tsuna, but she was far too shy to connect with any of the male guardians.

Hibari preferred to be alone, so his loyalties remained with himself. As soon as everyone graduated middle school, Hibari _finally_ left Namimori to pursue higher education in Tokyo. They never saw nor heard from him unless Tsuna formally summoned him to Italy.

They were stronger than ever as guardians, but they were also more separated than before as a family. Tsuna didn't seem to have a problem with their distance, so Takeshi didn't try to think much about it. The young Boss was certain that once the need arose, their family would come back without reservations or contempt for each other. They've done it before, they can do it again.

With Tsuna being so nonchalant about his guardian's independence, Takeshi thought it best to act like his flames stated he should – he needed to be the rain that washes everything away, which in this case was the distance between them and the… less _available_ set of guardians.

Mukuro outright ignored him but looked amused at his attempts to befriend him, while Chrome was too flustered to reciprocate his sentiments and absconded every time; Hibari just avoided him. He couldn't achieve what he wanted to in those short months he could hang out with them, but he at least learned something new about all of them.

Mukuro was a sucker for gossip. If one can make him laugh, they'd remain on his good side forever. On a good day, he'd even allow someone to put in a favor. Chrome was shy, but she sang really well and playing an instrument helped her express what she can't in words. Hibari on the other hand, apparently spoke in a language not many understood.

It was a trade secret known only to a few people, namely Reborn, Dino, Tsuna, and, quite recently, Takeshi – Hibari only listened to people he couldn't beat in battle.

Takeshi never won a fight against him, but he proved challenging enough to make Hibari take him seriously every time they did. Each spar they finished earned them mutual respect for the other. Neither of them said it aloud, but Takeshi knew it was the closest anyone has ever gotten with Hibari. Around that time, he discovered the perfect method to make Hibari cooperate that even the Bucking Horse didn't know.

 _Never_ give Hibari an order.

He only followed orders directly given to him by Tsuna, but even then _that_ was a big gamble. Hibari didn't like being ordered around. He'd much rather fight the person in charge than be asked to do something. Instead, what did work was to very vaguely ask Hibari to so something _and then_ let him decided how he wanted to do it.

When Hibari realized his ploy, the former disciplinary committee head beat him up for it, but once he'd exhausted those frustrations out, Hibari was slightly more agreeable. They agreed to always work on a compromise.

It was Takeshi's idea to bring Hibari along to Yokohama. He knew the raven would refuse it, but Hibari had the fighting skill and infiltration prowess needed for intel gathering that he nor Gokudera couldn't do. Mukuro would've been a better choice for stealth, but he always had his own motives. Takeshi didn't want to risk him playing for the other side.

Hibari laid out his terms, and Takeshi gave it to him without question. After they've reached an agreement, Takeshi tended not to break them because Hibari's mood can quickly swing from cooperative to defiant in a snap. However, Takeshi had no choice but to break it when Tsuna and Gokudera went missing; and his first instinct was to call Hibari.

Takeshi knew the consequences of breaking his word, so he didn't blame Hibari for ignoring him. Yet as he followed Hibird in the streets of Yokohama, Takeshi can't help but blame himself. Hibari can handle himself. Takeshi just got too complacent. _He_ let this happen.

Hibird's chirping grew more frantic and loud, until he disappeared into an alley a few meters down the road. Takeshi pulled out Shigure Kintoki as he neared the alley then snapped it at an angle to release the blade. He stopped dead on his tracks when he saw Hibari strewn on the floor, his limbs snapped in unnatural angles, and his clothes torn to shreds, colored by his own blood.

The raven's chest moved with each shallow breath, but barely enough to signify life. Above him stood a ginger head with a decent amount of injuries on himself too. His right arm lay limp and broken to his side, and his arms and face were littered with cuts from Roll's spikes. Hibari didn't go down without a fight.

"HIBARI-SAN!" Tsuna cried, and the orange head turned his attention towards them.

Chuuya Nakahara, Port Mafia Executive, grinded his foot deeper unto Hibari's cheek and said, "You brats Vongola? Just how pathetic is your Boss to send out a bunch of kids to start a war?"

Gokudera activated his gear and chucked out rocket bombs towards the ginger head. The Mafioso held his broken arm close as his body glowed a faint red. He dodged the projectiles with ease as he seemed to glide in mid-air. He swung a leg towards the homing bombs and somehow held them in place by coating them in the same red energy that surrounded his body.

"Really? Bombs? This isn't playschool you idio–" Gokudera forced his flames out of the bombs before Nakahara could finish mocking them. The Mafioso was thrown back by the explosion, and Takeshi ran for him. Blue flames that took the shape of a small swallow spewed out from his necklace. Koziro spiraled around the ginger's body, slowing him down enough for Takeshi catch his speed.

"Shigure Soen Ryu," Koziro doused the blade with flames as Takeshi struck forward in a familiar stance. " _Shajiku no Ame!_ "

Nakahara vanished in a blink of an eye, missing the blade's deadly cut. A blur appeared to Takeshi's left and he twisted his blade just in time to block the other's leg. His flames flared out to lessen the blow, but the force still threw him towards a wall that crashed on top of him.

"YAMAMOTO!"

Bombs went off on Nakahara's face, which blew off a good portion of his suit's right sleeve. He retreated again, and then kicked the rocket bombs back to Gokudera, who raised up Sistema C.I.A to shield himself while he checked on Takeshi, "You good?"

"Never better. Hibari?"

"Bad. _I told you_ we should've brought Ryohei along instead of him!"

Takeshi clicked his tongue. _He knew that_. "You can scold me later, _Cambio Forma!_ " He ran forward to meet Nakahara head on while Gokudera covered his approach with more rockets. Takeshi swung his swords around, which Nakahara avoided with agile low ducks and high jumps.

Nakahara grabbed both ends of the swords with his good hands and grinned as red engulfed the blades. The swords grew heavy in his grip, and before he could react, Nakahara's knee was shoved up his diaphragm. Takeshi crashed unto Gokudera as an invisible weight crushed them from above.

Tsuna yelled for them, and Takeshi managed to catch a glimpse of Hibari's arm twitching. He wasn't dead yet. They weren't dead yet. Takeshi struggled for his swords, while Gokudera screamed to force his dying will to burn brighter in hopes of overpowering the gravity that kept them grounded. Gokudera managed to lift himself up on all fours, and called out Uri-bomb.

Too shocked to react appropriate to the flaming feline, the explosion tore off a good portion of Nakahara's hat and suit, and singed some parts of his hair. "You fucking brats," he growled. "I'll show you who the real boss here is!" He slammed his hands down to the ground, and the weight of the world seemed to crush them from above. Tsuna's forehead sparked a distressed orange flame, until blue light showered them.

"What's this?" Osamu playfully sang as he kept a tight grip on the ginger head's left arm. "The simpleton developed a new hobby of beating up a bunch of kids? Just when I thought you can't get any lower, Chuuya!"

Nakahara growled pulled his arm out of Osamu's grip and tried to jab a fist at the latter's face. Osamu simply sidestepped away from it. "The fuck, are _you_ doing here you piece of garbage?! This is Port business. Get lost before I break your nose!"

"You're free to try, but you're too small to even reach my nose!" Nakahara blushed and tried to kick him down instead. Osamu ducked under it with ease and raised his hands in surrender. "Slow down, petit black, you'll hurt your other arm. The other's already broken."

" _What the fuck do you want shit for brains?_ "

"For you to stop harassing my brother's friends," Osamu said.

" _Br –_ " the other choked, " _Brother?!_ Since when did you have a brother!?"

"Since forever," Osamu rolled his eyes. "I'm not contracted to tell you everything you know."

Nakahara grit his teeth and stood down. He looked between Tsuna and Osamu a couple of times before he scoffed. "So this _brother_ of yours… did he tell you he's part of the Mafia too?" Osamu didn't answer so Nakahara took it as a yes. "No wonder you were so good," he cooed. "This shit's in your blood."

"Maybe," Osamu calmly said, ignoring the obvious jab at his ignorance, then snickered. "But you still beat up a kid, _and_ he got a good number on you too," he said glancing down at Nakahara's broken arm and the multiple scratches on his skin. "If he were in slightly better shape, he'd have beaten you fair and square."

Nakahara turned red. "HE ATTACKED ME FIRST! HE HAD A HUGE ASS ARMY OF HEDGEHOGS! THEY WERE TERRIFYING FOR CUTE LITTLE SHITS TOO."

"Ah! So it _was_ self defense," Osamu clapped. "But you decided to beat him with an inch of his life! Chuuya you really are the worst!"

Nakahara shook, his dignity destroyed by sharp words rather than bombs or blades. He pressed a hand on his face and sighed. "I don't know what's going on Dazai, but I'm warning you. Take their side and the treaty is over."

He turned on his heels and left, leaving Osamu with the guardians and their young boss behind. "Osamu-san –" Takeshi started, but older man held his hand up.

"We'll talk later. Let's get your friend back to the agency first, alright?"

* * *

Takeshi didn't take his eyes off the infirmary door.

He'd been assured that Yosano's methods were unparalleled and that Hibari would be fine. Takeshi trusted the Agency, but he couldn't help but think back on the injuries Hibari sustained. They were beyond the usual cuts and fracture the older male gained in battle. Hibari was strong, but he wasn't immortal. Only a powerful sun flame could heal Hibari completely, and Ryohei was miles and hours away from the city. Takeshi curled his hands into a fist. He should've listened to Gokudera and brought Ryohei with them instead.

A firm grip squeezed his shoulders, and Takeshi saw silent, but sympathetic green-grey eyes empathize with him. "He'll be fine, I promise," Kunikida said. "She may not look much but Yosano's ability is the best help you can give him right now."

"You don't even know if we're on the same side yet."

"I don't have to. I know you are." Kunikida smiled and ushered him into a conference room where the others waited for them. It was a small room with four long tables pushed together in the middle to form one large table that fit everyone in attendance. A map of Yokohama hung from the right wall, while an empty blackboard stood at the very front, currently empty of notes.

Osamu stood at the very head of the table with his arms crossed. Seated beside him was a man with long silver hair and stern, sharp eyes that wore a green yukata under a black haori. The other Agency members situated themselves on the either sides of the table, their eyes roaming around, unable to focus on just one thing only, but mostly staring at Tsuna who sat at the very end of the table with his head hung low.

Gokudera snarled when he caught some of them staring too long. "Stop staring at Tenth like he already did something to your city! We literally just got here. Tenth would never hurt people without reason, he's the nicest and kindest person I've ever met!"

"It's all right Gokudera," Tsuna mumbled. "I'll handle this. Just… calm down, alright?" He glanced at Osamu, who kept a face free of emotion. "Shall we start then, Fukuzawa-dono?"

"Very well," the President nodded. "Tsunayoshi Sawada, are you and your companion's part of Vongola as Port Mafia claim you to be?"

Gokudera clicked his tongue. Tsuna's shoulder's tensed. The answer was obvious to everyone present, but Fukuzawa wanted to hear it from them. The frown on Tsuna's face clued Takeshi on the younger's conflicted feelings.

Takeshi can't help but feel sorry for Tsuna. He knew Tsuna only wanted what's best for Osamu and didn't want him to be involved. Tsuna didn't even want his own guardians to be involved in anything Mafia if he could help even after they succeeded their respective titles. Still, Takeshi knew the sentiment would be lost at sea. Not after what he's read about Osamu Dazai in his file. 

Telling Tsuna would've been the right thing to do as his Rain Guardian, but as his friend, Takeshi didn't want to be the one to break the news to him. This was a matter between brothers, and it was not his place to pry open secrets that wasn't his. He had hoped that they had enough time to share these secrets in private, but alas time didn't allow for it. The circumstances certainly didn't wait for both brothers to be confident with each other either before pushing it all out into the open. 

Takeshi placed a comforting hand on his shoulder and sent him a comforting nod. Tsuna smiled at him, grateful. 

Tsuna took a deep breath and raised his head, his eyes remained just as wide as before, but they were no longer the innocent eyes of a teenager but exuded the wisdom and authority of a Mafia Boss. Osamu's eye twitched, failing to recognize the person before him.

"I'm Tsunayoshi Sawada, the tenth generation boss of Vongola, Decimo –" Kunikida dropped his pen, and Atsushi slipped from his chair. Kyoka frowned, both confused and intrigued at the same time as she studied Tsuna's frame. Tanizaki and his sister cried in disbelief. The boy with overalls tilted his head with a lost look on his face, while the squinty eyes man wearing a brown hat snickered behind his bag of chips like he knew something." – Gokudera and Yamamoto are my storm and rain guardians."

"So y - you are really... _"_ Osamu sighed. "You didn't think this was the most important thing to tell me!?"

"I didn't want to tell you. Not this way, if it was inevitable. I knew you'd react this way."

"Of course, I would! Port Mafia is after _you._ If I was a second too late you would've been –" Fukuzawa raised his hand, and Osamu caught himself in his rage. He took a step back and apologized. 

"I didn't want to tell you because I wanted to keep you out of it," Tsuna said. "You have a wonderful life here. I didn't want to involve you in it, and constantly worry about me. I was the only descendant left in the family after you –" he paused. "There weren't that many choices left to keep the succession strictly of Vongola blood."

Osamu pressed his eyes. "Does… Iemitsu know?"

"He was the one who suggested it."

Osamu grit his teeth.

"Iemitsu was a descendant of Primo," Tsuna continued. "He's always been Mafia, but he never told us because he didn't want it for us. He didn't want Mama to worry either. At that time, the succession would have never even reached us. Nono had three sons, but they were all assassinated sometime after you disappeared."

"So you're saying…" Osamu said. "If I came back then I'd be…? I should've gone back. That bastard threw you in a position that should've been _my_ burden. If I knew –"

"It's alright, nii-san," Tsuna said with a soft smile that assured the older of his situation. "Even if you were there, I have a feeling I'd still be trained to be the Boss either way." He tenderly touched the ring on his middle finger like he had just finished a conversation with it. "Iemitsu and Nono felt that my guardians and I inherited the first generation's will before we were even viable candidates, and they were right. Regardless of your circumstances, I believe the role would have fallen to me in the end."

Osamu's eye twitched again. A million thoughts swirled in his mind, but he did not voice out a single thing in the open. Everyone just stared at him, waiting for his response. Tsuna bit his lip.

" _Fine_ ," he sighed. "You're Decimo and the inheritance was inevitable. I can't do anything about that now – but I will punch Iemitsu for this." Tsuna smiled, a little grateful for his brother's protectiveness. "Just answer me one thing, and please don't lie to me about it. Have you killed anyone?"

Tsuna's eyes grew. "Oi, what kinda sick question is that?" the storm guardian snapped. "Of course the Tenth hasn't killed anyone! He's not that kind of person!"

"I don't care if Tsuna is now the head of the Italian or some other Mafia I don't know about because of our blood," Osamu said. "What I _do_ care about is whether our bastard of a father forced _my_ brother, the kindest and most forgiving person I know into the path of a murderer. There is only one way of life in the Mafia, and that's to be worst person alive. There's no room for empathy in such a place where betrayal and lies are commonplace. To survive, you have to be the strongest, the most revered, and you only become respected if you kill those stronger than you, and punish those weaker than you"

He glared at Tsuna, who faltered slightly at the intensity behind his brother's eyes. Takeshi glanced at Gokudera who also understood where the venom in his words came from – _Osamu Dazai was the youngest Port Mafia executive._ He had become so feared and respected that a saying was born from his reign. The worst thing for Dazai's enemies was the fact they were his enemies.

Takeshi didn't know what happened to Osamu to make him the person he was in the files nor did he know what caused a drastic change in him to defect from his past and join a Detective Agency, but Takeshi did know one thing, Osamu did not want the same thing to happen to Tsuna.

Tsuna smiled, seemingly able to pick up on the same sentiment with his Hyper Intuition. "I know."

Osamu blinked, his anger seeping away to make way for shock. "That's why I refused the title for three years," Tsuna said. "I didn't want to be part of a family that can take innocent lives so easily. That – That's not me. I've been forced many times to do it so I can save the people I care about, but I always found a way around it." He looked Osamu straight in the eye. "I've never killed anyone, and I never will. Primo didn't create Vongola to be feared, we were never meant to be a Mafia. He created it to protect those that can't protect themselves. I became Decimo to relive that promise. The moment I kill in the name of Vongola, I'd have failed as its Boss."

Takeshi couldn't help but smile, proud of their young Boss for once again standing up to his beliefs, however naive they sounded to others. This was why Tsuna deserved to be Neo Vongola Primo.

Osamu's upper lip twitched, almost like a smile, but quickly turned away to hide it. He kept his attention on the window behind him and said nothing else.

"Your predecessor is aware of the Tripartite of this city," Fukuzawa continued to fill the silence with meaningful discussion. "He agreed to honor it, and for a decade, Vongola has left Yokohama alone."

"Yes," Tsuna said, "and I plan to continue that agreement. The reason we are here is because a book was stolen from Vongola's vaults in Italy." Atsushi's eyes grew wide, and his already pale skin, grew even whiter. Osamu turned his head just slightly in intrigue. "We don't know who, how or why they did it, but they sent this to us a week later."

Gokudera slid a black envelope towards Kunikida who read it aloud, " _Dance merrily and obediently to our tune, young lion, and the Book shall make way back to its castle._ Did they have demands?"

"They asked up to steal or attack at least twenty different establishments registered under Port Mafia's," Takeshi said. "If we finish their demands before the deadline, which is in four days, they promised to return it back to us."

"Th – this book…" Atsushi asked with his hand half raised. "What does it do?"

Gokudera shrugged. "It's supposed to rewrite reality or some shit. No one's really sure. Reborn just said it was given to us by an Ability user a couple of years back for safe keeping."

Atsushi fell back with his head buried in his hands. "Th – It can't be – could it? The Book they're looking for…. It can't be the same – ?"

Takeshi narrowed his eyes at the white haired teen. "Atsushi," the teen grew stiff on his seat, "what do you know about The Bo –"

"President!" a female staff member burst through the door with panicked eyes. "Th – the boy they brought in – he's fighting Yosano-san!" As though on cue, the sound of something breaking echoed through the corridor leading up to the main office.

Kunikida immediately stormed out of the room with some of the members following after him. Takeshi sighed and excused himself. If there was anyone in the room that Hibari would listen, it'd be him.

When he reached the main office, Kunikida was shouting at the Hibari to calm down while the latter pushed his tonfa's against Yosano's unusually large cleaver. Yosano struggled in her step as she tried to push back. " _Out of my way_ , _flea_ ," Hibari snarled.

A feral smirk appeared on Yosano's face, "Make me." She kicked Hibari on the hip then widely swung her cleaver across his torso. Hibari jumped back and landed on a low crouch on a desk behind him. "Patients stay in the infirmary until _I_ say otherwise. Now get back in there before I kill you. You know I can always bring you back."

Hibari's eye twitched at that comment, but showed no sign of backing down.

Takeshi stepped in before the other could activate his Vongola gear. "That won't be necessary!" Hibari threw his tonfa towards him, and Takeshi caught the stick halfway through its arch. "She just healed you, Hibari. Let's thank her by _not_ killing her okay?"

Hibari scoffed and quietly stood down, a motion not many may notice unless they knew Hibari well. Takeshi handed his weapon back with a small grin. "What were you even planning to do?"

"Bite the ginger roach to death."

He chuckled, which earned him odd looks from the on looking Agency member. "Of course you would! But he beat once already, don't you think he'd beat you again?"

"Not this time."

"Are you sure?"

Hibari glared at Takeshi for a good ten seconds before he sighed, conceding. "He's mine, _understand?_ "

"No problem. I'm not the best against earth flames anyway." Hibari rolled his eyes and quietly sauntered behind the dividers of the welcome lounge. Takeshi sighed and turned to Yosano, who watched Hibari lie down on the couch with mild confusion. "Sorry about that… He can be a real handful sometimes. I should've warned you about that. Sorry."

"No, no," Yosano shook her hand. "He's my patient so that makes him _my_ responsibility. I was just shocked he managed to get back on his feet immediately after I used my ability. He's a terrifying kid that one."

"He can be," Takeshi nodded. "Still, thank you for what everything you've done for him."

Yosano waved her hand dismissively. "It's nothing. _Thou Shalt Not Die_ was made for situations like his, I'm just glad you got him to me before he passed. Otherwise…"

Takeshi tilted his head, and Yosano shook her thoughts away by poking his side. Takeshi winced as a shot of pain traveled through his arm. Yosano's eyes sparkled. "You got hurt fighting Chuuya too didn't you? How would you like a demonstration? I promise to be gentle."

He saw no harm in agreeing and followed Yosano into the infirmary.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is easily one of my favorite chapters because I finally used Yamamato and I was able to add some 1880. It's completely platonic but if you're curious for more steamy action, read Tabula Rasa by Erisabesu (ErisabesuFic). There some Soukoku sprinkled in here too, but man they hate each other too much to be properly romantic. I have mix feelings about my dialogue but I did the best I can in my re-reads. Hopefully they gave that right angst punch. 
> 
> As the mystery deepens, and questions are answered, more questions arise – I would have to apologize for an unforeseen act break! I ran out of chapters, and C10 is still on the way. If I can't post by this weekend just assume writers block won. I will finish this story, I just need time to write them down.
> 
> Before I end this note, I'd like to know how you folks feel about OCs? I have quite a few planned for this story, and depending on the consensus, I may or may not use them. 
> 
> Thanks for the continuous support! See you all in two weeks, hopefully.


	10. Chuuya and the Red Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mori has called for an Executive meeting, and Chuuya really hated the lights in that room.

Chuuya stormed through the Hall of Light and Dark with a broken arm, wrapped in a cast that he cradled close to his chest with a blue arm sling, and half his face covered in bandages. To say that he was pissed was an understatement. He was mother fucking furious. Not only did he get his ass _almost_ beaten by children that apparently lead Vongola, they brats beat him enough that he sustained damage that should merit him a few days in the infirmary recuperating from them.

 _It also_ , didn't help that he looked a lot like that suicidal bastard, that's _also_ a stupid waste of bandages with how much he's covered from head to toe with them right now.

There was no way he was going to sit still and wait for himself to look pretty again while Port Mafia was dealing with an old threat. Thankfully, Chuuya was the type that healed faster under direct pressure and stress. After all, getting injured in a fight was not new. A few broken bones, with severe lacerations across the skin, and spread out first degree burns just came with the job description. He'll live. He's suffered through worse.

Still, he would give credit where credit was due. Three teenagers were able to put him in a cast and bandages while platoons of full grown men with years of experience could only dream off putting a scratch on him. A boy he'd beaten to the death managed to walk it off and broke Chuuya's bones as payback. Chuuya endured a good ten, maybe fifteen minutes of the kid's attacks before the latter succumbed to his injuries. Even on the verge of defeat, the hedgehog kid refused to go down. His fighting skill _and_ spirit was honestly impressive.

Hirotsu warned him beforehand of the so-called Vongola cloud guardian's reputation, as well as the damage he's done, allegedly, on his own in the last ten hours. Not only has the hedgehog kid infiltrated some of the most guarded businesses of Port Mafia, he also defeated Black Lizard.

If he wasn't an enemy Chuuya would've invited him into the Port Mafia. The blood lust in his eyes was so intense that Chuuya was convinced it could send Akutagwa's stubborn ass running with Rashomon tucked between his legs. Till the very last second the kid glared at him with the intent to kill. It almost sent a shiver down Chuuya's spine. _Almost._

Chuuya only knew of Vongola through whispers in the underground. They were an Old Italian Mafia family that branched out to Japan a few decades ago or something. As an Executive he knew of their shared history, but not so much of the intricacies behind it. When he'd been sent out to deal with the cloud guardian, he imagined some middle aged Caucasian man with hideous scars and a mustache. He also pictured him to own Beretta's instead of tonfas, and with a platoon of well-suited men like Hirotsu had with his kill squad.

It was a bit of a shock to discover that the real cloud guardian turned out to be only a few years younger than he was. Alone. He didn't even look much of a threat at first glance. Fighting him wasn't even as hard as Hirotsu made it sound, until those purple flames burst from the kids' bracelet. The close quarter fighting he could handle, but those damn overgrown hedgehogs were something else. Since when did Abilities allow people to use altered animals?

He frowned. No, that's always been possible. The Guild had a giant mechanical whale for a headquarters. Metal hedgehogs and dynamite kittens were nothing compared to that monstrosity. The burns on his face throbbed upon recalling that damned bomb. Chuuya's hand absentmindedly glossed over his bandages.

It also didn't help that Dazai was with the rescue party when they arrived. That shit stain saw him in his sorry state and had the gall to make fun of him for beating up a teenager that was out for _his_ head. It was down-right insulting. However after a couple of hours away with his thoughts, Chuuya became much more intrigued with Dazai's brother rather than his victory against three Vongola guardians.

After Dazai defended Vongola, and his, apparently, totally real, little brother, Chuuya instinctively focused on the other brunette with large brown eyes. It was ludicrous to think that someone who looked so fragile with that much fear in his eyes could be part of the Italian Mafia; even more so be that trash's brother. While it amused him to know that Dazai's blood relative joined the Mafia, while he left it behind, this brought up problems that needed to be shared with the rest of the Executives.

Dazai didn't seem aware of his brother's affiliation with Vongola, and merely protected him and his friends out of familial obligation. After their encounter, however, he was sure that discussion will come up eventually. When it does the Agency may choose to back up Vongola's interests, whatever those may be. It didn't matter whether or not Dazai protected his brother out of familial obligation or because they were under the Agency's protection. It was a problem for Port Mafia and their peace treaty with the latter if they decided to go through with the war.

Two men in formal black suits bowed as he approached the large and heavy double black doors of the executive meeting room. They promptly opened the doors for him and Chuuya waltzed in a completely dark room that was vaguely lit by an ominous red color from a large oval shaped ceiling light. Chuuya personally didn't like the lighting choice because it put a strain in his eyes, but it definitely provided ambiance for important meetings.

Six French framed chairs were placed all over the neatly polished redwood table underneath the ceiling light. Mori sat at the very end, his attention focused on Elise who just threw the plane across the table until it landed in front of the executive seated one chair away from Mori's left. He politely offered it back to Elise when the girl bound over to retrieve.

Kōyō, who was seated to Mori's immediate right, stood up to meet him as he entered. "I'm glad to see you're healing well."

"They're not that bad, ane-san." Kōyō chuckled at his stubbornness. "I've lived through worse."

"Of course. If you were to die by the hands of measly teenagers, it would be a stain on your perfect record would it not?"

Chuuya clicked his tongue, choosing to ignore the question, and begrudgingly took his seat beside her. Two seats were left unoccupied; one formerly owned by the deceased Ace to Chuuya's right, and the one directly to Mori's left, which he'd purposely left open for Dazai in case he returned to the Mafia. Chuuya saw no point in leaving it open, but Mori was certain the brunette would return after his grew bored of this little game of theirs.

"Now that we're complete, we may begin." The red lights dimmed to accommodate the brightness of the screens in front of each chair. "Vongola has returned to Yokohama and mercilessly attacked us. I've called for this Executive meeting to decide on our response as a unit. Chuuya, if you would."

Chuuya pressed on the numerous files of information they currently have on the Vongola from his screen and pushed it to the large glass in the middle of the table for everyone to see. "We've confirmed the presence of three guardians, the storm, rain, and cloud, in our immediate vicinity. Their current names are still unknown, but I've caught a couple of what they called each other."

He presented each photograph of the guardians and continued. "The referred to the cloud to as Hibari, and the rain, Yamamoto. The storm I didn't catch the name of. It's unclear if the other four are also within Yokohama, but it would be safe to assume that they are. Like Mori said, we've been attacked in all immediate and nearby wards under out control."

Chuuya switched the display to the buildings were Hibari was spotted. "The cloud guardian was known to attack three of our businesses; Sibyl Networks, Tohmatsu Financing, and Goemon Limited for unknown reasons. Black Lizard reported that he didn't take anything."

The older executive across Chuuya stroked his beard while he studied the projections on the screen. "That's similar to the pier attack. Ransacked the place but nothing important was stolen or taken." He scoffed. "They're mocking us. I say we move beyond these frivolous talks and fight fire with fire."

Mori closed his eyes. "Keep your head calm, Yasui. You are an Executive of our business front, not our offensive front. While I value your input, he who acts in anger first, loses the war. Only a fool would move before studying his enemies."

Yasui snarled behind his square shaped glasses. "This Hibari killed _my_ men. I'm allowed to be angry. So should you! They've massacred dozens of foot soldiers in the city. Blood's been spilled, Mori. This is war whether we choose it to be or not. An eye for an eye."

Mori merely glanced at the enraged Executive and the latter fell silent.

"I understand your sentiment," Mori said. "I would want nothing more than to make Vongola regret their barbaric actions however, I cannot shake the feeling that there is more to the story."

Chuuya lowered his gaze as he thought about Dazai's brother, whose profile stared back at him in his personal monitor. The words Vongola Decimo, tenth generation boss, screamed at him. He knew something had to be special, or wrong _,_ with that kid to be part of the Mafia. His eyes were simply too kind to be the leader of an organization known for its decades old of dirty money and innocent blood.

Then again, Dazai had a screw loose. It wasn't a surprise his brother might too.

"I'm inclined to agree with Ougai," Kōyō mumbled while she studied the files on her own. She pushed the photographs of the attacks to the middle screen and continued, "Aside from the obvious attack left by the cloud guardian, five attacks were categorized as stabbings with a bladed weapon, while seven were brutal shootings and brawls our own men did to each other. Objectively, the cloud guardian's ambush resulted in the least number of deaths compared to the ambushes. While seemingly related, I think it otherwise."

Yasui slammed his hands on the table and started to argue the lives of his employees again, while Chuuya openly juggled with the thought. He'd fought against the guardian's, out of everyone in the room, he knew them best. They were formidable foes, but Chuuya didn't think them capable of murdering people out of cold blood. He knew what killers were like, and while the cloud guardian did give off that same energy, Chuuya knew he knew when and how to hold back his punches. If he didn't none of the employees in the businesses he'd infiltrated would be alive.

The stabbings could be the rain guardian's handiwork, but that didn't explain the deaths in which their own men killed each other. Vongola had Abilities too, but none of them were capable of _that_. Kōyō seemed to think the same while she tried to reason with Yasui.

"The Mist guardian, was used to be an enemy to the Mafia," Yasui said. "I don't know why a person of his history would bea guardian, but his hatred for our kind of people could explain all of these bodies. The three of us know exactly what the Mist Flames can do."

Chuuya glanced around the room with a light frown. The other Executives were members of the regime before Mori took its place as Boss. They all knew what the Vongola was like beyond files of information or rumors. "Mist Flames? You mean his Ability?"

Kōyō shook her head. "Not quite. Vongola's powers may appear similar to ours, but they follow a different set of rules. They call them the Flames of the Sky composed of the sky itself and the storm, rain, sun, lightning, cloud, and mist flames."

"The guardians represent each flame?" Chuuya said.

"And the ability to use it," Mori said while he raised his ringed finger for show. "These flames are stored on special rings they call the Vongola rings. They're inherited by every generation from the previous and the way they are used differ for every generation and guardian. It's what makes them so feared as a criminal family, but without them, the guardians are close to being human."

Chuuya didn't remember seeing any rings on the guardian's but he did remember a bracelet and a belt buckle covered in purple and red flames respectively. "So they use colored fire, big deal," he rolled his eyes. "What's it got to do with the Mist's flame?"

"Illusions," Yasui answered. "The mist guardian's ability is _always_ illusions. A bastard with a grudge like this towards any Mafia, will obviously get off watching comrades kill each other."

"While that may be true," Mori said. "We have no confirmation that the Mist guardian is present in the city. We've had no reports on the lightning and sun guardians as well. We barely have an estimate on how many men Decimo brought along. If we are to be generous and say that _yes_ , all of the guardians are in the city and that there are roughly fifty Vongola men hiding, waiting for orders, this invasion would not be this silent."

"Except it's not isn't it," Yasui continued to argue. "We've got a rising body count. The longer we hesitate to strike, the more bodies they'll gift wrap to us in a bloodied bow. Not to mention!" He cried, exasperated. "The cloud's attacks were deliberate. He was searching for something, and if Chuuya hadn't stopped him, they may have taken it right under our noses."

Mori closed his eyes and waved a hand to Elise who handed him a black paper with a badly sketched emblem of Vongola on its face. "Hirotsu lost Vongola's letter in his fight with the Cloud, who took it from him. I'm inclined to believe he also took similar letters from Tohmatsu and Goemon."

He played short amplified clips of the cloud searching through the accountant office in Tohmatsu, and the vaults of Goemon for the same black envelope. Chuuya's eyes grew. "If it's their emblem, and they placed them all over the city for us to find… why are they taking it back?"

Mori smiled as he turned to Chuuya with a proud look. "Well that's obvious isn't it? They weren't the ones who put them there in the first place."

Yasui scoffed, still not convinced. "Let's say, for argument's sake that you're right, and there is someone out there pretending to be Vongola. Why would the _real_ Vongola be here? How do you explain that?"

"There is, unfortunately, a limit to what I can speculate given what we have," Mori said. "The previous Vongola, my dear friend, as ruthless as he was, yearned and worked hard to be at peace with us. I don't doubt his chosen successor would work against his philosophies."

"I agree. Decimo, for all the whispers of his power and strength, looks too soft," she said with a soft giggle that made Chuuya frown in disbelief at her. "He has the eyes of a protector. If he could solve a problem without resorting to a fight, he would. Their silent activity in Yokohama suggests this. As for the murders, I'm afraid I'm also at a loss with them."

Yasui huffed as he stood, "I doubt my opinion matters as you've clearly made your decision. I'll leave the fighting to you again. I'll return to my work." As the older Executive disappeared through the door, Chuuya turned to Mori and Kōyō.

"Are we making the right choice by not to fighting back?" he calmly asked. "They're in the city, and they attacked us first. It could be a trick to confuse us. Bide time and all that."

"Yes, everything is quite possible," Mori hummed behind his gloved hands. "We have barely scratched the surface of truth behind this unforeseen circumstance. This odd string of events happening so close to Fyodor's attempt at mine and Fukuzawa's life must mean something too. It's really a bore, waiting. But don't you think it's much more interesting this way?"

Chuuy clicked his teeth at the smile Mori's face. This was just a game to him, isn't.

"I wouldn't worry too much Chuuya," Mori said. "I'm certain that Decimo has only brought three of his guardians. The last time they were here, they only had a chance at winning with eight Flames present. With only three, which you've managed to defeat on your own, and the sky against our number of Ability users? This war is as good as won."

Chuuya frowned. _Not if Vongola has the Agency decided to help them._

Kōyō very slightly turned her head towards him but said nothing. "I'll have my men look for more of those letters," Chuuya said, then turned on his heels. He pulled out his phone and scrolled all the way down to a number he vowed never to contact ever again, and pressed it.

Back in the meeting room, Kōyō closed her eyes and said, "He was hiding something."

"Yes," Mori nodded as he stared at Vongola Decimo's picture with a sly smile. "One can't help wonder what that might be."

* * *

Chuuya paced around Rimbaud's grave that stood near the edge of a small cliff overlooking the sea. "This was a mistake. I shouldn't be here," he said to himself as he watched the seconds morph into minutes and grow closer to the agreed time. "If Mori finds out -"

"He would definitely kill you," Dazai snickered from the shadows. "But it's not like he already doesn't know. You're very easy to predict petite black!"

Chuuya swung his only good arm at the brunette, who easily dodged it with a slight step to the right. "Clam it, waste of bandages!"

Dazai snorted. "You just called yourself a waste of bandages."

"THAT WAS YOU!" Chuuya cried. "MINE ARE TEMPORARY!"

"Hibari really did a number on you, huh?" Dazai continued to tease. "He's quite a terrifying kid. Tried to fight half the Agency after he got healed, and Yosano wouldn't let him back out to find you. You're welcome for that by the way. Tsunayoshi said if Hibari wanted to kill you, there was nothing he could've done as Boss to stop him."

He would've said something about Hibari's lingering animosity with him but instead focused on how casually Dazai mentioned his brother being the Boss. He's quite talkative today. "So you knew?"

Dazai shrugged. "He's told me enough. He wanted to continue it in private in my place but _you_ called." A sly smile smeared on his face, and Chuuya visibly groaned. "There was no way I could deny Chuuya when he begs to meet up with me! You never call first. Imagine my shock and excitement when I saw your number on my phone!"

Chuuya trembled and swung a leg at Dazai who ducked under it and pushed the former on his chest. The ginger fell on his back and Dazai kept him down with his foot. "Play nice, Chuuya. I'm _really_ in the mood to break something right now, and I'd rather not it be your other arm."

Chuuya flinched. There was definitely something more to this whole ordeal. Whether it was personal or not, the ex-Mafia executive was very pissed. "Mori thinks there's someone else behind this."

"Of course he would," Dazai said while he lifted his foot off the other's chest. "He's fought Vongola Nono before. This was suspicious the moment Hirotsu found that letter in the pier."

"How the _fuck_ do you know about that?"

"You're not the first to come to me asking about Vongola, you know," the brunette smirked. "I was also Mori's unofficial right hand, he's told me stuff about Vongola when they signed that treaty. This whole thing feels like them, but at the same time not. It's a well-planned copy but with my cute brother as the Boss, the plan falls apart in a snap."

As curious as he was about Dazai's other contacts inside Port Mafia so he could beat them up himself, that wasn't why they agreed to meet. He wanted to make the people that killed their men pay. Whether it was Vongola, or not, Chuuya would get his justice. "Then you know why they're here and what they're after," he said, more like a fact rather than a question that the other didn't confirm nor deny.

The brunette simply stared towards the horizon where the night sky was painted by the bright, colorful lights flickering from the city. He kept his mouth shut while Chuuya stepped closer from behind. "Is the Agency going to help them? Are _you_ going to help them?"

"We are, and if you were any smarter, you'd know to do the same."

Chuuya popped a vein at the quick insult. "I may not be as smart as you, but I'm not a fucking idiot! There is now way I'd help another organization bring down my own. We already work with your goody two shoes organization far too many times than I'm happy with. Now you want us to work with an old rival!? Only a traitor like you would even consider that!"

He grabbed Dazai by his collar and grit his teeth close the latter's face to accentuate his point. "They've killed _our_ people. Mori doesn't want to do anything until we are sure it's them. But the moment we prove it, and we discover Vongola was deceiving us, how _your_ brother is playing you for a fool, I promise you, I'd be the first person to smash his face in the ground."

Dazai grew silent, and Chuuya suddenly felt a cold breeze blow at the nape of his head. "They have the Book."

Chuuya frowned. "Book? What _Book_? And who has it, Vongola?"

"The one the Guild was looking for. The very same book that urged them to put that high a bounty on Atsushi-kun's head," he said. "Vongola had it all along, and now someone's stolen it. They're using it to control Vongola and force them to take youdown."

"Who the fuck do you think we are?" he scoffed. "We aren't going to down that easy."

"I know. _They_ know that, and Tsunayoshi knows that. He's not here for a fight. They just want that Book back, and for all our sakes, it's better if we get it back to them."

"Do you even have proof that it was _actually_ stolen from them?" Chuuya said. "The Book is a myth. The Guild couldn't find it, and your kittendidn't even know it existed till he was hunted for it. How are you sure this isn't some plan of theirs to get it for themselves. We've been told The Book is here and Vongola's been after this city longer than we've been part of it. Maybe the reason why they're here is because _they_ want it."

"He may be your brother, but he's also the leader of a Mafia now. Have you ever thought that he's using you?"

"He thought I was dead, Chuuya. My whole family did."

The ginger blinked, his thoughts crashing to a halt as he processed that small revelation. "He didn't even know I was alive till three days ago. If he planned this all out from the beginning to make me search for the Book, then Vongola really turned my brother into one hell of a liar. His tears, and the anger pointed at me for not coming back when I should've even I couldn't fake that. And I'm the _best_ at what I do. Are you telling me my brother is capable of all that, just so I can help him burn this city into the ground?"

"You would've," Chuuya mumbled. "He's your brother. If you hadn't left, you'd be just like him."

Dazai shook his head. "Maybe. But you're really fucking shitty for implying my sweet brother could account for all these things. Lie to me, convince Fukazawa and the rest of the Agency that he's here with good intentions, create a third anonymous party to incite a war we're left in dark about every. It's too grand, too complicated. I love my brother, but even I know he's not that smart to think of it on his ow-" he paused, eyes growing wide as though he just realized something.

Chuuya tilted his head, confused at what got the shit head's tongue twisted in his mouth. When he broke into a laughing fit, Chuuya was sure he'd lost his marbles. "Oh, that _bastard_ ," Dazai hissed, amused. "So this is your move."

He crossed his arms, unable to follow the thought process Dazai just went through in silence. Were they already familiar with the enemy, or was this just the tacky bastard talking nonsense again. "Chuuuuuya~" he sang in that tone the ginger knew all too well.

Chuuya backed away the moment Dazai wriggled his hands to catch him. "No, stay the fuck away." The brunette jumped for him, and he ran for it. There was _no fucking_ way he was going to do an errand for this lunatic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're back folks! Mafia Executives unite to defeat Vongola. Of course Mori was just too smart to go guns blazing first even though he could. Our first minor OC is Yasui, or as I call him 'token old man business' He's mostly just a stand-in executive because we're still missing one out of five. As for Chuuya, he really can't take a break from Dazai can't he?
> 
> GAME TIME. We got a bit of Easter eggs here with the three companies mentioned. Can you figure out the references made? I can't really offer any prizes but I'll give you candies and lots of love. 
> 
> Updates on the updates as well. I won't be uploading a week anymore, and maybe do it twice a month instead. I'm trying to continue on my other fics as well as balance it with work now that quarantine's over. Hopefully Covid doesn't make a comeback and all of you are safe. See you next chapter!


	11. Mukuro and the Vines of Bright Glade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mukuro follows a lead.

Blue feathery skies painted the skyline with the bright orange sun which kept the temperature in a cool 17 degrees Celsius which was at least 10 degrees lower than Japan at this time of the year. It was the perfect weather to explore the city. Mukuro would've _loved_ to do that. It's been a while since he'd gone out of the country for himself rather than business anyway. The only time he’s ever stepped outside of Japan was when he was working for the Mafia, plotting against the Mafia, or when he was in prison. The last one wasn’t really his choice.

Today’s trip was a little mix of both. He decided to accept the mission simply because the target intrigued him; that he’s never been to Russia before.

"OW - OW- OW!” a young man with a large scar across the bridge of his nose spat as he drank his fresh cup of coffee. “AH BURF MATUNG!”

A man wearing a white beanie and glasses shook his head in disbelief. "I told you to wait until it’s colder."

"Ifh looked thaisthee, byon," Ken Joshima whined whilst he fanned out his tongue. Chikusa Kakimoto rolled his eyes and handed the other an ice cube to calm his taste buds with. Ken begrudgingly chewed at the block then glanced at Mukuro with wide almost puppy dog like eyes, hoping to get their leader at his side.

Mukuro turned his attention away and merely drank his warm chocolate in silence. Ken dejectedly lowered his head while Chikusa resumed his study of the city guide on his hand. “M.M should have returned by now.”

Mukuro hummed, unbothered by the absence of their only female companion. “Let her be, Chikusa. She’s enjoying herself. This is the most I’ve asked for her assistance in a mission. And besides,” he shrugged. “She knows Russian. We do not. It’s better if she gathered the information for us.”

“But we’re already disguised, byon,” Ken said. “It wouldn’t be suspicious at all.”

Even if it wasn’t necessary, Mukuro still preferred to mask his presence with illusions. It kept him foreign and a constant threat. A perfect assassin blessed with stealth. He’d been told many times that he relied on his illusions far too much, but it hasn’t failed him yet, and thus, it won’t fail him now.

“Kufufu,” Mukuro chuckled. “Our target is known for their anonymity, scampering about unnoticed, and their numbers unknown. Four foreigners asking around would raise unnecessary attention, and _if_ they are present in this town at all, word will travel fast. I’d rather not lose our element of surprise.”

Their target was of no immediate threat or danger, however the lack of information Vongola had on them made Mukuro wary. The mystery group was only known through their emblem, a mouse with white swirls inside oval shaped eyes and a manic grin. It earned them the moniker of “Rats” in the European underground. No one knew what name they referred to themselves nor how their organization functioned, or how they gained network overseas either.

Mukuro only had rumors to go on about them. They were, for some reason, acquainted and supported by the infamous Order of the Clock Tower from London, another underground organization that worked closely with the Crown. Vongola wanted to avoid any conflict with them at all cost, which made finding the Rats even harder. The Order protected the mysterious faction. CEDEFs attempts to locate them were thwarted by the Order’s agents, and so Vongola was forced to play their best hand.

Plenty of Tsunayoshi’s advisors still didn’t trust him nor his team yet, but with Chrome formally seated on the guardian’s table instead of him, they were much more lenient with him taking on this task. Normally, Mukuro would ignore any and all requests from Vongola, but on the rarest occasions such as now, his interest was piqued and thus he was willing to be the Mafia’s dog once again.

Like real sewer pests, the rats thrived in the darkness unbeknownst to the criminal giants of the land. They spread their influence without making a single noise. Mukuro wanted to know how they did it, and greedily wanted to make their power his own. Mukuro wanted the head Rat.

Admittedly, Mukuro stopped searching and collecting susceptible bodies to possess ever since Tsunayoshi defeated him (and he was asked to be the Tenth Guardian of the Mist). Mukuro simply didn’t see the point doing so anymore. Tsunayoshi held the highest position he needed to see the Mafia end.

It wouldn’t exactly be wise to kill him if Decimo already promised to destroy the Mafia for him. Mukuro and Decimo had very different definitions of ‘destroy’ but Mukuro decided to stick by his side just to see how well that would go. Tsunayoshi wanted to return Vongola to what it once was, a power that protects, not exploits. It was undeniably naive of Tsunayoshi to think he could usher such a change in Vongola’s character like that without sparking bad blood with formerly loyal families.

The families that Tsunayoshi and his guardian’s fought in the past supported his ambitions, but those that disliked the direction of the new Vongola quickly jumped ship. They hadn’t planned to overthrow the current generation yet but it was bound to happen. It was possible those families had formed an alliance with the ever elusive Rats to get back at them.

The underworld thrived in the darkness, and Tsunayoshi’s experiences barely scratched the surface of that ruthlessness. Overhauling the Mafia’s creed was close to impossible because it will fight to retain its status quo. Still, Mukuro can’t help but be as idealistic as the boss whenever he spoke about it. A Vongola that protected the helpless, it sounded like a dream he and the rest of his family had when they were children.

Mukuro stopped possessing powerful men because no one could surpass the young Boss in his eyes. Well, there’s that and Tsunayoshi made him promise that if he ever lost his way and succumbed to the Mafia’s darkness, Mukuro had full permission to possess him and destroy everything the way he wanted. Mukuro eagerly awaited the time wherein Tsunayoshi’s heart was dyed so black that death was a viable option for him to run.

That being said, Mukuro wasn’t opposed to opening that endeavor again if said candidate was someone crafty enough to steal from Vongola and subsequently made them dance like rats to retrieve an item they didn’t even know existed.

The origins of the Tri-ni-sette Book was a mystery. Even Kawahira, who supposedly protected the balance of the rings and lived at a time to witness its birth had no idea where the Book came from. He only knew that the Book performed the same miracles that the completed three sets of seven did. It allowed any who possessed it to exist as a point in time and space, as well as granted them mobility to move along those planes. Unlike the rings that required all rings to be present, the Book was only limited to one's imagination.

It was unshackled, limitless power.

If Mukuro had known of its existence all those years ago, he would’ve risked everything to take it for himself as well. With that weapon in their hand, the Rats could do _anything_ they imagined. For the first time since he’s heard it as a child, the proverb ‘the pen is mightier than a sword’ rings true. Which is why it’s baffling to think that they would resort to blackmailing Vongola into going to war against the Port Mafia. If Vongola deserters joined up with the Rats, who had a score to settle against the Port Mafia, it would be mutually beneficial for their enemies to fight each other rather than fight them themselves.

It was ingenious. However, Mukuro wondered why they didn’t just use the Book to eliminate both of them. There was no need for this chance for uncertainty, and ultimately their plan failing and meeting its untimely demise. If the book was as powerful as Kawahira claimed it to be, snapping them out of existence was completely in the realm of possibilities.

 _Unless_ , Mukuro thought. The Book couldn’t be used as freely as they initially assumed.

“Mukuro-sama!!” MM cried while she approached their table. She swiftly took the empty seat beside Mukuro and wrapped herself around his free arm. She nuzzled her head affectionately at his chest, blushing a little at their closeness. Mukuro would’ve pushed her away but he’d gotten used to ignoring her affection through the years.

“What have you gathered for me, my dear?”

“I found this really cheap but quality jewelry store two blocks down,” she said, a bit distracted. “There was also this cute handbag across the street. We have to buy it! We can even get Chrome one so she doesn’t get jealous of me. I’m sure she’d love it - HEY!” she shouted in offense when a half-eaten biscuit hit her cheek.

“Get to the point you HAG, byon!”

“Don’t call me hag! I’m not _that_ old, you rowdy mutt!”

“Ken.” The blond snapped his mouth shut while M.M stuck her tongue out. She quickly hid her childishness from Mukuro once he turned his attention towards her. “Let’s stay on topic shall we?”

“Of course!” MM blushed. “I asked about Rats and they told me there’s plenty in the sewers. They’re _Гавно,_ they said _._ I don’t think they’re the ones we’re looking for though. There’s also an abandoned mansion up north. Some aristocrats used to own it then just disappeared. It's still private land so it’s been untouched since forever."

"So it's an abandoned house, big whoop," Ken huffed, "that tells us nothing about Rats."

"Chrome's intel placed their organization here," Mukuro said. "Whether or not that is true, our task is to find out and take the Book back if it’s here."

Chikusa pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “An abandoned property could be something."

“A hideout hidden inside an old mansion? I expected more from an elusive group," MM said with an eye roll.

Mukuro chuckled. “The only way to find out is to see for ourselves.”

* * *

When the Russians said the Yasnaya Polyana was an abandoned mansion, Mukuro pictured a large estate similar to Vongola’s headquarters in Italy but less cared for - paint chipping off the walls, overgrown fields of grass, unkempt bushes along a driveway, maybe even a few vandal writings on high-end marble stones. What he did not foresee was a forest of monstrous vines that ran along for miles.

Thinner coils wrapped around the corroding metal gates which Ken poked, curios. He popped off a fresh round grape from its stems and chucked it inside his mouth. M.M’s face contorted in disgust.

“Interesting,” Chikusa said. “I’ve never known grapes vines to grow this much.”

“The aristocrat has been missing for years, overgrown vines aren't new,” M.M said.

Chikusa shook his head. “It would have just died.”

“Then, I don’t know! Let’s just cut through it and head for the mansion. I need a hot bath.”

Mukuro studied the vines. Grapes, regardless of how overgrown or ignored did not spread to this extent. He traced a finger across a stem and sensed cloud flames inside it. No, not quite like the cloud. However it did contain properties of propagation similar to the cloud. He smirked.

“Ken, scout ahead, Chikusa circle around. They may be expecting us.”

Ken equipped his wolf channel and leapt high over the gates and into the forest of vines. Chikusa disappeared to an area to their left. M.M held her clarinet close, ready for her task. “What’s my order Mukuro-sama?”

“I’d like it if you stayed close. We do not know what our enemies are capable of, and it would pain me to see you get hurt.” M.M blushed and patiently waited for the others to return.

Thirty minutes later, neither Ken nor Chikusa returned. Mukuro kept a level head and refused to think of the worst case scenario. He did not hear any commotion nor feel their presence harmed by their enemies. M.M shifted beside him, clearly just as worried.

That was enough waiting. If the Rats captured his family and made no demands, then there was no need to be stealthy about infiltrating their base. Pillars of fire erupted from the ground, charring away the plant life that obscured their path after Mukuro’s eyes displayed the first circle of Hell. “Let’s go.”

Mukuro glanced around as more vines fell to their feet, burned and crisped black as they ventured deeper into the path that didn’t seem to end. He heard light footsteps surround them not long after they entered the forest of vines. They kept walking, ignorant of their advance to fool them into believing they hadn’t sensed them yet. Granted they were very faint and were subtle movements, but Mukuro had the best sense of foresight in Vongola, it was nearly impossible to sneak up behind him.

Mukuro counted at least ten foot soldiers. Some hid high above the trees that were riddles with grape vines, while some lay prone beneath the bushes. He heard the familiar click of firearms, most likely an automatic. M.M spotted one behind a tree, and tugged Mukuro’s sleeve to warn him. He offered her a small smile, assuring her.

When the firing started, Mukuro quickly raised a barrier of rocks around them with the mist channeled through Verde’s reality illusion gloves. The firing didn’t cease forcing them on the defensive. M.M kept her back on Mukuro, eyes scouring for the direction of every gun fire. She blew unto her clarinet and a string of explosions destroyed their guns.

A couple of brave soldiers ran out of their hiding spot and rushed towards M.M with knives at hand. The redhead grinned, welcoming the challenge and played another tune. The few that dodged her burning vibrato were immediately subdued by the whip of her nun chucks.

Behind her, Mukuro swung his trident and reshaped the rocks into pointed projectiles that cut through anything it touched. Several bodies fell from the trees, with an arm or a leg cut off, left to bleed out; while a few screamed, horrified at the piece of earth that pierced their chest.

“That was uneventful,” Mukuro sighed while M.M giggled.

“Shouldn’t have relied on payable's to take care of the boss,” a voice, who spoke in English said while the vines began to crawl and move all around them. Mukuro raised an arm over M.M, wary of the ability user’s presence. “Fitzgerald made the same mistake before too. I should’ve known better.”

Suddenly M.M shrieked and was dragged high above the foliage by vines, as thick as tree trunks. Mukuro reached out to grab her but was flicked away by another vine. He caught himself with a roll and threw his trident to cut off the stem pulling M.M away. The prongs stuck to the vine and soon disappeared with her.

Vines steadily climbed up his leg, trying to ground him, but Mukuro slashed through them. He brought out pillars of fire again, hell bent on burning every single piece of flora in this garden if he had too. Mukuro’s earring flared up with indigo flames when the simple illusion did nothing to lessen the vines that kept growing all around him. His attempts to activate his Vongola gear was cut off when a thicket of vines hit him square on the chest.

Its branches grew around him, curling around his arms and legs to trap him in place. The vines traveled up his neck, covering his mouth and forcing his right eye close, limiting his ability to cast any of the six paths of reincarnation. Mukuro’s only free eye twitched. He hated being bound like this.

The vines in front of him cleared to reveal a man with short blond hair wearing a flat cap on his head and a long sleeved button up shirt rolled up under blue overalls. The Ability user casually strolled forward with a potato on hand and what seemed like a trunk of grapevines attached to his neck.

“For a Mafioso of your reputation, I kind of expected more.”

Mukuro narrowed his eyes at the blond, unfamiliar with his profile nor was he impressed with the latter’s propagation skill. This volume of cloud was nothing compared to that man’s. 

The Ability user flicked his finger and Mukuro’s companions were brought forward. Ken was trying to gnaw his way out, Chikusa, looked pissed and remained still while M.M dangled from above, screaming out profanities unbecoming of a woman. “Then again. No one can run from my vines. I know everything they do. You jump over it? I’ll _sense_ it. You walk around it? I _see_ it. You burn it? I _feel_ it. Whatever you try, I’ll know.”

Mukuro tried to move his mouth, but the vine around his jaw just pulled closer. How dare this crude English man take away the one thing he liked to do.

The blond laughed at his frustration. “Try anything funny and my Grapes of Wrath would crush you and your friends.” He then turned to his right, as though conversing with empty air. “This enough to get paid yet?”

"отлично сработано, Steinbeck."

Glowing rings of indigo text sprung beside Steinbeck and revealed a young teen with wavy dirty blond hair that delicately framed his dark colored face. White patches covered up the majority of his face, making people naturally gravitate to his eyes; which were empty and completely devoid of emotion.

“English, Ralph,” Steinbeck groaned.

Ralph blinked, ignoring his colleagues request and handed over the case on his hand to the taller male. Steinbeck checked the contents of the bag and grinned. “That concludes our business then?”

“I wish to speak with him.”

Steinbeck frowned. “You think you can bargain with him? He just took out half my men. His Ability is more powerful than yours.”

“That’s why we employed you.”

“Cheeky brat,” the blond’s lip twitched, but promptly called back the vines on Mukuro’s mouth.

“Kufufu,” he chuckled, amused. “I did not take the infamous Rats to be led by a measly child.”

“I could say the same for Vongola,” the younger said.

Mukuro’s eyes narrowed, taking slight offense at the comment against Tsunayoshi. Young as the Tenth was, he was far more powerful than most people. Mukuro made similar mistakes underestimating the young Vongola back then of course, but he wasn’t now. Clearly, this child was not the leader. He was a throw-away. Yet another cog in the machine. “I came here to ask for an audience with the mastermind that made Vongola its attack dogs, yet here I am welcomed by a child and his babysitter.”

Steinbeck bit off a large piece of potato. The vines gripped Mukuro even tighter. “Kufufu, one with a temper too. To what do I owe the chance of speaking with you then, Ralph…?”

“Ellison,” the younger finished, his eyes unblinking towards the illusionist. “The Boss counted on your arrival. He knew Vongola had no intention of following through with our demands. He anticipated many variations of the same result. This is one path.” He said it so monotonously that Mukuro barely heard a person behind it. It was like talking to a robot with a singular purpose. “We have a proposition for you.”

Mukuro raised an amused brow. “You are bribing a guardian of Vongola?”

“No. I'm presenting an offer,” Ralph dismissively said. “Humans have a single desire they want to fulfill. Ours would be to see the world burn, and yours _was_ to erase the thing you hated most. It’s deplorable to find you indebted to them. We extend a chance of salvation and a chance to enact a swift revenge. You will be free to do as you please once we are through.”

Mukuro snickered. “I’ve had my taste of that. Can't say it was met with a satisfying conclusion.”

Ralph finally blinked. "Help us, and the Book will grant anything you wish."

Ken and M.M struggled behind them. Steinbeck frowned. "Book? The one Fitzgerald was looking for? The one _your_ boss told us was in Yokohama?"

“The Book was never in Yokohama,” Ralph said. “However, the Beast essential to controlling its full power was. You’ve failed to acquire the target and we’re forced to move with the contingency.”

Mukuro grew confused by their exchange but was nonetheless intrigued by it. There was some history between them that he could use. “This isn’t my place to say but,” he said, “you make it sound as if you were prepared for them to fail.”

“The Guild lacked powers that made them a lasting threat. The only one of merit was their tactician. She made their appearance in Yokohama worthwhile, should they have followed her completely. They would not have failed so disgracefully.”

Steinbeck clicked his tongue, and Mukuro chuckled. That was a sore spot. How quaint. “Kufufufu, how embarrassing. They were nothing but stepping stones for you Rats?”

“If they were successful, yes. Our mission was to take them out the moment they returned with the targ-” A thicket suddenly knocked Ralph off his feet and pinned him to a tree. Mukuro smirked, Mist flames flickering around him while the other two were distracted with each other.

“You used us! If it weren’t for you I would still have a job I actually liked!” The vines crushed him hard enough to snap bones in half, but Ralph did not show any sign of being hurt. His eyes remained as still and empty as glass. Then Steinbeck fell to his knees.

Thin, whiplike vines, flung a child’s body towards another tree. Ralph dropped to the floor, unconscious, his empty eyes open left open, unfeeling. Steinbeck pulled up his hand and chuckled at the blood that now painted his fingers. “Fucking sewer trash.”

Steinbeck’s eyes snapped to the side as though he sensed something on the ground. A thicket grew from the soil and caught another hull that looked resembled Ralph, hiding behind the bushes. The vines wrapped around his arms and pulled them in opposite directions. The child blankly stared at his attacker, and burst into a ring of indigo text when his arms were pulled apart.

The child giggled almost eerily in the darkness as Steinbeck’s attention was caught by another flurry of movement behind the trees. “Stop playing around!” A carpet of vines erupted across the driveway trapping and stabbing more meaningless duplicates that ran around taunting him. 

An invisible force kicked Steinbeck back and a silver glint stabbed his arm. Two Ralph bodies ran forward and shoved knives on the taller man’s hands and pinned him down. The visages then merged into one as the new body cut through the vines connected to Steinbeck’s neck.

“Я приказал вам атаковать?” the child sneered. “I would kill you for insubordination, but it would be cruel to leave your family starving. Know your place, Steinbeck.”

Steinbeck glared at his employer, but yielded upon the mention of his family. Ralph turned to Mukuro, whose lips were curved in pure intrigue. “You’re a lot craftier than you look.”

“This task wouldn’t have been entrusted to me if I couldn’t handle myself.”

“Maybe they shouldn’t have then,”

Three prongs suddenly pierced through Ralph’s back, spilling blood onto Steinbeck’s shirt. Ralph pulled the weapon off himself, and stared at the holes on his chest. He dropped to his knees, his eyes finally widened in fear for the first time since the fight started.

Mist dispersed around Mukuro, leaving empty air trapped within the space of the vines that previously held him. The real Mukuro, now dressed in a French-like black military uniform with yellow epaulette, stood over Ralph’s trembling form. He struck the other end of his trident straight through the child’s heart half expecting it to wither into yet another trick of the mist. To his pleasure, the body dissolved in rings of text.

“You’re horrible,” Ralph’s voice echoed somewhere in the dark. “You just killed me in cold blood.”

“Kufufufu, a child so easily able to attack his own comrade deserves no respect of mine.”

“You would do the same.”

Mukuro looked around, searching and feeling around for the real body in the mist. Abilities were truly a world of their own. “If it proves beneficial to me, I would not hesitate of course.”

“We know of your desires, Mukuro. You want to cleanse this world’s darkness because you find it unworthy. There’s so much suffering, so much corruption and greed. We can help you achieve that.” Ralph appeared before him again in a ring of text with his hand held out for Mukuro to take. “Help us, and we reshape this world however we see fit.”

Mukuro briefly glanced at the hand and chuckled. “Kufufufufu, if I’m to recreate this world, I’d do it by my own hands. Besides,” the trident on his hand morphed into a khakkhara with six sharpened metal spikes dangling around the ring on its hilt, “I wouldn’t work for a faceless rat that sends children to recruit me.”

He slammed the khakkhara unto the ground, and six eyes opened, forming a circle around him, appeared, with each iris detailing a path of Hell. Steinbeck screamed as an eye focused on him, and more eyes appeared in the darkness; all looking at him. The broken vine, once attached at his neck sprung to life and wrapped itself around Steinbeck. It wringed around him the more he fought against it. A vine slipped inside his open mouth, and Steinbeck coughed violently as the vine crawled up into his nose and further down his throat. 

He trashed around, horrified as vines filled his lungs and only breathed his own power. Steinbeck’s eyes rolled to the back of his head, defeated by the dangers of his own ability. Mukuro spun around and threw Steinbeck out of his world. He searched for the aggravating child of mist and sang merrily, “This is my domain little mouse. Your illusions are of no use here.”

Mukuro noticed something move to his right and immediately grew ten times in height. Ralph, with a knife on his hand stumbled back, and shocked at the sudden display of power. “Here, I am king, and you are dust.”

He grabbed the blond haired pipsqueak like a ragged doll. Mukuro’s gloves transformed into tight bands that dragged the poor child into the jaws of a grotesque amalgamation of animals that swallowed him whole. He was thrown into the abyss, falling endlessly for centuries with only floating eyes for company and the occasional trips of death. His body slammed into the ground, now a skinny old man seconds away from breathing his last.

Mukuro lifted the speared end of his khakkhara unto the English’ neck. “Your fortitude is impressive. My illusions have yet to break you, why?”

Raspy, breathy sounding chuckles escaped the younger’s throat. He pressed his neck closer to the spear, eyes still glassy, unafraid of meeting his end. “Master has done worse. Death would be a mercy. My only regret was it did not come from him.”

Mukuro smiled. “Then I’ll grant you one final mercy.”

Blades around the khakkhara’s ring extended to stab multiple duplicates of Ralph that attempted one last Hail Mary through their chest. A burst of indigo rings revealed the real Ralph, _finally_ , among the sea of clones and Mukuro changed the dark abyss into the fiery pits of hell, burning everything away, including his own body.

The raw, unfiltered cry of anguish and pain sounded like music to Mukuro’s ears.

As the last embers of Hell fire turned to ash, Mukuro returned to the real world with his friends safe and sound behind him; Steinbeck already bound by Chikusa’s yoyo and M.M brutally smacking the English man with her clarinet as payback. The real Ralph fell from high above the tree top, with his mouth strung open, drooling and broken by the illusions he couldn’t fathom.

If they weren’t on opposite sides, Mukuro would’ve applauded Ralph for keeping his presence so expertly hidden among the fakes. Even he didn’t realize where the child was until the end. Fran should learn from this one.

Mukuro cut his trident through the kid's cheek, crimson eye rolling into the kanji for six. “Let’s hear what you know, rat.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE DEAD MOUSE CREW HAVE ARRIVED - oh and Steinbeck’s also here. The Guild needs money, and apparently the Russians have a lot. Ralph Ellison would be the first of five big OCs I have planned. His ability is called Invisible Man which reduces his presence among copies of himself. It’s not my best to be honest, but I needed him to be a little bit of a challenge for Mukuro. Which is a hard feat when you’re up against Mukuro. He’s based off the author of the same name (BSD really be that way).
> 
> I only used google for the Russian so I apologize if I got them wrong. I would happily correct them should anyone know better! Гавно shit // отлично сработано Well done // Я приказал вам атаковать? Did I order you to attack?
> 
> There's another OC sprinkled in the details of this chapter, so let's see if you can figure out who they are or who they’re based on. Leave your guesses down below. For a bonus point, try guessing their ability too! Thank you so much for the increasing support for this fic btw. I see you silent kudos givers there. I'll throw you a cookie but we gotta respect social distancing. Keep safe in this pandemic, readers! See you next chapter. Sushi out.


	12. Atsushi and the Book's Calling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Atsushi faces a beast.  
> There's a shooting in the office.  
> Plans are made.

Atsushi's hand wouldn't stop shaking.

Tsuna, or rather _Vongola_ , was after the very same Book that Port Mafia, under direction of the Guild, hunted him for. Atsushi didn't even know he had a connection to it until Fitzgerald told him. Even then, Atsushi didn't think much of it and called it a fluke so that he'd feel inclined to go with him. They fought above the Moby Dick, and the allegation was left forgotten in the back of Atsushi's mind. There were far more important things to worry about that some half-baked lie about his relationship with a Book he barely knew a thing about.

However, upon hearing the others discuss it in a controlled environment without any immediate danger of being killed if he got distracted, Atsushi couldn't ignore it any longer.

The white beast stared at him from across the white room of their shared consciousness; a rare thing that happened between them in case he wanted to plead the tiger for more power than what he was capable of controlling. Its golden orbed eyes stared into him as though speaking directly to him. _Find It_.

Atsushi wanted to ask how, but he knew, deep down, what he needed to do. He always did. He just didn't have the mind to stop and listen. _Follow the Lion._ Follow Tsuna, it means.

Atsushi glanced over to Tsuna, who looked over Yamamoto from head to toe, teary eyed and shaking worriedly. The guardian just finished his coerced treatment from Yosano, and unlike Hibari who was unconscious for it, remained awake the entire procedure. He didn't scream as much as Atsushi or Tanizaki did whenever they received an operation, but the swordsman couldn't help but let out a few distressed screams that made Tsuna freak out to the point of losing blood.

The President wanted to continue where they left off, but the guardians warned them about Hibari's state in case someone dared wake him up. It was a death sentence, they said, and not even the Tsuna, their _Boss_ , had the courage to do it.

Left without much to discuss, Fukuzawa excused himself to his office, wishing their parties to rest for the night and reconvene early tomorrow instead.

Dazai was the first to leave. He walked past Tsuna, not bothering to say a word to him. Tsuna bit his lip, worried and tried to run after the older Sawada, but was too late to stop him by the door.

Kunikida sighed to himself and offered Tsuna Dazai's number; in case he wanted to talk with his brother again later tonight. The remaining Agency members followed suit and returned to their respective desks in the lobby to finish left-over paperwork.

Tsuna and his guardian's excused himself from the Agency not long after, leaving Hibari in their custody, to which Yamamoto brazenly said, "He'll wake up when he wants too, and don't worry about him, he knows his way back."

Tsuna waved at him before they left, but Atsushi couldn't make himself return the gesture. The brunette frowned, disappointed at their seemingly soured relationship, and left. Atsushi bit his lip. _Find It,_ the animal growled again. _Follow the Lion._

It wasn't that he didn't want to bid the other farewell, Atsushi was just worried that if he did, maybe he'd have acted along with his thoughts and followed Tsuna back to where and the rest of Vongola was staying. The Book was stolen from Vongola, it wasn't with Vongola. At least, not anymore.

Even if he did follow this urge, which both baffled and terrified Atsushi enough to make the hairs on his arm stand up, seemingly electrified by the thought to _take the Book back_ , he knew he wouldn't find it.

 _The Book wasn't with Vongola_ , he screamed back at the impatient beast that growled at him in their shared mindspace.

Despite this, the tiger roared. The power that allegedly connected him and the Book itched on his skin. He could feel it. It was close. Hidden somewhere in Yokohama. _So close._ Hidden within arms reach. _He had to get it._

Atsushi buried his head in his hands. He didn't need to get it. He wasn't _just_ the beast anymore. He was _Atsushi_ , and he had people to care about. He took deep breaths in an attempt to bury the beast's consciousness back down in his mind. It was beginning to claw at his control. Atsushi was still able to confine it within him, but he wasn't sure for how long.

The Beast never wanted something this badly before.

Images of mangled bodies, bloodied paws - hands, and torn clothes flashed before his eyes. Then for a very brief second, a hand reached out for him from within the vast whiteness. Atsushi gasped.

_What was that?_

"Atsushi?" Kyoka's gentle voice seeped its way into his ears, rooting him back down to reality. "Are you alright?"

Atsushi hid his hand, and smiled as best he could to assure her. Kunikida who sat beside him, also looked at him worriedly but didn't say anything. Atsushi's smile faltered, not used to lying with this much effort. He wondered how Dazai could do it so easily. "I was… just thinking."

"About Tsuna, or the Book?"

 _Find It. Follow the Lion_. _Take it Back_.

Atsushi shook his head, fighting off the thoughts and once again laughed, in a lousy attempt to fend off the eyes Kyoka and Kunikida had on him. "Today was a lot to process. If you're tired, I can excuse you early, Atsushi," Kunikida said.

"Eh? R - Really? But Dazai's deadline is coming soon and I still haven't"

"Forget about that," Kunikida said, taking the stash of papers on Atsushi's table then dropped them across Dazai's desk. "It's his work, not yours. I told you to stop spoiling him with these favors. He's not going to stop until you stop being a pushover. Go home."

Atsushi fumbled in his bow, before leaving with Kyoka. They stopped by the convenient store for dinner ingredients and silently worked in the kitchen to make something filling for themselves. He was too distracted by the beast's growls, fighting the urge to run into the night, to make or maintain any of Kyoko's attempts at conversation.

 _Okay_ , Atsushi thought, and the tiger stopped bothering him, seemingly content on having his attention. The Book was definitely in Yokohama, probably closer than any of them thought, and he needed to get it before…

Atsushi blinked. _Before what?_ He didn't know, the tiger didn't seem to know either.

_What would he do with it?_

The beast had no answer either.

Annoyed, at his ability's naivety, Atsushi turned his back at the beast and finished setting the table for dinner. _Find It._ _Take it Back,_ it insisted.

Atsushi found himself growling out of shared frustration, earning him a look from Kyoka, who looked just about fed up with his inability to communicate his thoughts aloud. Kyoka placed her chopsticks down and looked Atsushi straight in the eye.

Atsushi faltered at the intensity behind them and mumbled, "Ky-Kyoka-chan?"

"Tsuna's a good person. He's not like me, when I was still in the Port Mafia, or Mori-san," the younger assured him.

"Y - yeah he is," he found himself agreeing. Did Kyoka think he was worried about Tsuna and Vongola?

"If it's not about Tsuna, and the thing they lost instead…" she reached out to hold Atsushi's hand, comforting him. Somehow, the tiger stopped growling so ferociously at him. "We'll figure it out together."

Atsushi smiled. "Right. Thank you, Kyoka-chan."

Kyoka's hand slipped from his, and they returned to eating with each other as company. He made up for his wandering mind earlier by engaging Kyoka with a prolonged discussion about Akibarangers, a television show Kyoka recently got invested in.

* * *

The next day, Atsushi woke up with a headache, and his room ripped apart.

He screamed so loud that Kyoka came running in from her room with her tanto unsheathed and Demon Snow hovering behind her. "What happened?" she asked, eyes fully alert for any and all threats.

"I… I don't know," Atsushi looked around, unable to come up with an excuse on the fly. It was obvious what happened. The beast fought to take control of his consciousness again. He held his head, exhausted from some static dream he couldn't remember from last night.

Kyoka dismissed Demon Snow and grabbed him a glass of water. She didn't pry any more than necessary before they set off. Atsushi passed by Dazai's dorm to remind him of the time. When no one responded, they sent him a quick text then left. Dazai had a tendency to disappear with his thoughts if they became too much; and considering the events yesterday, it was warranted.

However, Dazai was also their strategist. Without his mind, they may fail to come up with a plan that ensures their victory. _The Book,_ the beast growled again, albeit much softer now. If Dazai wasn't around, Atsushi may not get a chance to see, or reunite with the Book.

When they arrived in the agency, a loud bang caused Atsushi to jump. A small, round, golden orb grazed his cheek and impaled itself on the wall. Kyoka tackled him down, narrowly avoiding the next barrage of lead. They rolled to the side, hiding behind the counter while the attacker ceaselessly fired at them.

"What is going on?!"

Kyoka ignored his panic and objectively gestured for them to split up. She pulled out her tanto and counted down with her fingers. Atsushi tried his best to calm down and keep his breathing steady. He's fought harder opponents, one with abilities, than some lone gunman with a grudge.

At Kyoka's command, Atsushi jumped over the counter first taking fire away from the former, while she dashed to subdue the shooter. Within a second however, the shooter pulled out another gun and started shooting at them both. Atsushi fell back when he was hit by multiple rounds across his arms and chest.

He half-expected his life to flash before his eyes when he dropped, obviously punctured with bullet holes, but when scrambled to push the bullet out and regenerate, he didn't see a nick of blood on his dress shirt. Littered around him were about six, maybe eight, round, golden rubber bullets. "What -?"

Kyoka kept rushing forward, blocking the gunfire with acute precision with her small blade. She slid behind the desks the leapt for the shooter, her tanto poised to kill.

"Wait, Kyoka chan -" Tsuna's head suddenly popped up from behind one of the desks.

Surprised, Kyoka hesitated for a second and was subdued by the intruder. She dropped her weapon after receiving two hits on her arms, then fell face first, seemingly knocked out when a gun smacked her on the head.

Her tanto skidded under the desks, unreachable.

"REBORN!" Tsuna shouted, alarmed at Kyoka's state and immediately bent down to check her for injuries. "I know you don't trust them but isn't this a bit much?!"

A small man, it was hard to tell given his height, but his neat black suit, and the two automatic guns that were half his size brandished on each hand gave Atsushi the impression that he was just a dwarf. "Nothing is too much. If they want to help us, then they should defeat _me_ first, before I let them."

Atsushi's mouth fell as the smoke and gunpowder cleared enough for him to recognize that the small suited man was actually a child. "Ah, a baby?"

Tsuna made a strained noise, almost begging as he reached for the baby hand when he aimed the rifle at Atsushi. The baby smiled plainly at him. Atsushi shuddered at how close it was to Dazai's scheming smiles. A gunshot made Atsushi instinctively scramble to his knees and bowed before the tiny man.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

"Reborn, would you just-!"

Kyoka pushed herself upright and dashed towards Reborn, grabbing a pair of scissors as she did. She aimed from above, then low, but the baby dodged them all, then discarded his guns for quicker mobility.

He flipped around to kick her, and was met by with a steady arm. The baby grinned, throwing his fedora to the lass, which blinded her enough for the baby to land a heavy kick to her side. Kyoka cried out loud as she stumbled towards the wall.

Out of nowhere, Gokudera popped out and caught her in his arms before she hit her head. "Damn, kid. You can fight. Even I can't last that long with Reborn!"

"Kyok-!" Atsushi tried to help her but went as stiff as a board when a cold barrel of a gun pressed between his eyes. He made a strangled noise, similar to Tsuna's own.

"The girl passes," the baby with large, oblong shaped black eyes said. "This one's debatable. He's shivering like a wet kitten."

"You have a gun to his head! I'd be terrified too if you did that to me!"

"Well then," Reborn pulled out another gun. Tsuna shrieked, then looked around frantically for cover. "I should scare that coward out of you for good this time." Without warning, the baby fired another set of bullets at the young Mafioso.

Tsuna dove behind his friend, who only laughed at the ordeal. The bullets seemed to miss Yamamoto completely while Tsuna received a rather painful shot to his ankle. He jumped out of hiding, and Reborn was there to intercept him, kicking him on the groin.

Tsuna crumpled within himself, trembling at his lost manhood.

"I'm really sorry about this senpai," Yamamoto said to Kunikida, who Atsushi failed to notice earlier was seated on his desk like nothing of the sort was happening. Reborn continued to abuse Tsuna with a squeaky hammer. "It's Reborn's special training. Everyone goes through it."

"The President approved of it, so what I think or say doesn't matter."

"Kunikida-san! W-why does this baby have a gun?!"

"Ciao su," the baby greeted him. "I'm a hitman that makes sure No-Good Tsuna does his job properly."

"Eh?! Hitman? No-Good Tsuna?"

Yamamoto picked up Reborn without hesitation, and Atsushi's mind screamed. How could Yamamoto carry the dapper baby without an ounce of fear!? Wasn't he afraid of getting shot?!

"Take it easy, Reborn. You know he's outgrown that part of him already. No need to bring back old habits."

"Without me, he'll always be No Good. Just look at the situation I found you in, scrambling for answers in what's supposed to be a quick job."

Yamamoto chuckled as he put Reborn down on the table. "Well, Tsuna had to deal with some family issues, I'm sure you can look it over."

Reborn sighed, his pistol morphing into a small green chameleon that crawled up to his fedora. Atsushi silently wondered if it was an ability. "As Decimo, stupid Tsuna should know how to keep a straight face. You are here for business, not dilly dallying."

"Don't call my brother a reason for dilly dallying!"

Reborn kicked a pencil eraser at Tsuna's forehead, and it made a loud slapping sound that made Atsushi jump. That was a strong kick for a baby! Atsushi turned to Kunikida, perplexed and horrified, practically begging for an explanation.

"This is Reborn, Tsuna's tutor. He came to help with their situation."

"Tutor? But he's a baby..." Another shot rang near Atsushi's head. "PLEASE, STOP SHOOTING ME!"

Reborn smiled. "I expected more from the rumored Beast of Calamity, but I suppose ability and person are two different things."

Atsushi frowned at the comment but the baby didn't elaborate any further. Instead, the small child hopped off the table and repositioned himself by the door. Gokudera pushed the now decrepit furniture back to where they were when he and Kyoko entered and waited for their next victim.

Atsushi stiffly laughed. This felt awfully a lot like the Agency's mandatory entrance exam, except this time, it was delivered by a very dangerous baby.

Soon enough, the other members were welcomed in the same bullet hell. Tanizaki was quick to defend his sister, and even succeeded in disarming Reborn. The assistants that came in were spared from his tyranny, because, despite his ruthlessness, Reborn was apparently a ladies man. He tucked the guns away before they could register the firearms and instantly fawned over the misleading baby.

Yosano tried to cut Reborn with a large cleaver when he started shooting, but she quickly fell to his adorable charms like the office secretaries. Kenji completely disregarded the danger when he arrived and instead tried to make friends with Reborn while he shielded himself with a desk over his head. Ranpo, completely avoided being shot by phoning Kunikida and asking him to tell the shooter to _not_ shoot him.

"You're an interesting one, ain't you?" Ranpo said crouching down to the baby's level and raised him up like he was a small animal. "A full grown man within the body of an infant."

"You mean that crazed baby, is not really a baby?" Tanizaki hissed while Naomi gently pressed an ice pack on a red patch on his forehead.

"I am a baby," Reborn said, "but I'm also not a baby."

Atsushi tried to make sense of the contradiction but only achieved a headache, while Ranpo laughed. "Tell me how you did it! What magic did you cast unto yourself?" He took Reborn's hat and tried looking into it, but the baby just grinned.

"You'll need to be cursed by a checkered faced man and a pacifier."

"I'll be right back!" Ranpo ran out, leaving the rest dumbfounded as to whether or not there was any truth to it. Atsushi turned to Tsuna who shrugged with a weak smile. "It's uh… a long story."

Reborn counted the heads in the room and said, "All that's left would be Tsuna's brother."

Tsuna buried his head on his phone, probably to warn Dazai about their trigger happy visitor while Reborn stole Gokudera's cup of coffee from him. The silver head tried to protest but soon resigned to the baby's needs and grabbed himself a new cup.

"You already know about Dazai-san?" Atsushi asked, which made Reborn sneer up at him.

"Of course, I was hired to train the next Vongola boss. Color me surprised, I ended up training the lesser of the two. Didn't even know there was an older Sawada till today." His eyes, never blinking, seemed far too dark all of a sudden. "Even now, Iemitsu hides a great deal from me."

The beast growled, suddenly cautious of those eyes that made his instincts make him want to run. "Uhm... Reborn-san, have we… met before?"

Reborn's unblinking eyes stared at him, then his lips curved upward. He didn't say anything more and Atsushi was left none the wiser about the danger screaming at his chest. Who was he?

Dazai finally appeared not long after, but not through the door, no. Sloppily, through the window. Tsuna fumbled to help him in, while Reborn seemed to consider shooting both Sawada's while they sorted themselves out. Thankfully, he tucked in the gun and walked over to Dazai with his standard greeting.

"Ciao su, Osamu Sawada."

"Wow, wow, wow!" Dazai gaped, "Ranpo wasn't kidding. We have an infant dressed like a hitman." He shook Reborn's hand, and they kept each other's eyes trained on the other, studying and learning in silence. There was no obvious tension between them, but Atsushi recognized the sudden change in Dazai's body language. Something about Reborn rubbed him wrong too.

"I hope Tsuna didn't give you too much trouble with his training." Dazai put on a smile. "I know he can be quite a lost cause."

"If babies grew older based on stress rather than age," Reborn said while mimicking Dazai's empty grin, "then I would've been in my sixties already." They then shared a good hearted laugh that made Tsuna melt in his seat.

"Shall we deal with business then, _Osamu_?"

"Of course, _Reborn,"_ Dazai clapped and pushed Tsuna towards the conference room. "I've got a neat surprise for you all. Wait -!" he paused, holding Tsuna back by his collar. "Where's tonfa kid? I need to give him my thanks for roughing Chuuya up."

"He's not a crowd type, so," Yamamoto shrugged.

"Ah well, that's a shame," Dazai pouted. "As long as he knows what's going to happen, then I don't have a problem with it. Let's go, go go young _Decimo._ You first."

* * *

"I'm meeting the Port Mafia's boss?!" Tsuna cried in panic, which Reborn quickly subdued with a click of his pistol. The brunette quickly fixed himself and tried his hardest to put on the mask of a well-respected, possibly feared, Mafia Boss.

Atsushi felt sorry for him, when Tsuna struggled to keep up appearances beside Reborn.

"Yes, but only you and your guardians. The Agency stays out of it," Dazai said. "They've lost a lot of people, and a few of them want blood. Mori is _mostly_ in agreeable terms, but he wouldn't hesitate to fight should we give him more reason to."

Tsuna grumbled, somehow conflicted over the invitation. "Well, I'm not opposed to meeting him, but..." Dazai raised a brow. "We're not allowed to reach out to Port Mafia. It's why we tried to lessen our presence here as much as possible."

"Didn't work though," Gokudera huffed. "Bastard's hit them the moment we strayed from the rules."

"Rules? What rules? You didn't mention the rules before?" Dazai said.

"If we ever at any point in time during our infiltration of Yokohama, contacted or attempted to contact the Port, conducted an unwarranted search for the Book, or extended beyond the deadline of their demands, they'd use the Book," Reborn listed off. The room grew tense at the urgency in his voice. "In hindsight it could be a bluff, but we're not willing to risk it. Abilities operate differently from Flames, and if the Book really was born from an ability then even the Tri-Si-Nette could not fix what's been written on it."

Atsushi exchanged glances with the other Agency members, save for Fukuzawa who nodded in understanding. He slowly raised his hand. "Ah - well - you see - sorry to interrupt, Reborn-san, but… what are flames and Tri-si-nette?"

Yamamoto's necklace, Gokudera's belt buckle, and Tsuna's two piece ring all simultaneously sparked into life, burning in blue, red, and orange colors respectively. Everyone unaware of their power stared at the accessories in mild awe. Ranpo tried to reach for Gokudera's buckle, but was promptly slapped away.

"It's kind of like Abilities, but they only work as long as we wear gears to channel the flames," the rain guardian said.

"And the Tri-si-nette?" Dazai pressed. "It warps reality like the Book?"

"If you want to, yes," Tsuna said. "Its main purpose is to maintain life and balance the powers that exist on Earth, like the Flames and Abilities. If held by the wrong hands, it could mean the end of everything." He grit his teeth a little too heavily at the last part as though speaking from experience.

"I don't think I get it but..." Atsushi said, "Generally, it'll be bad if they used it at any point right?"

Vongola nodded, and Dazai leaned back in thought. "How do we know they haven't used it yet?"

"We won't," Reborn said as he walked the length from Tsuna to Dazai. "If they've already used the Book without our knowledge, then whatever's changed, we won't know until we read it off a page ourselves."

"That is quite the problem, isn't it?"

"Yes, quite."

The silence stretched among them, bothered by the idea that something in reality may have already changed, and none of them would be aware of it.

 _Not us_ , the beast growled. Atsushi frowned, wondering to himself what his other self-meant with that cryptic claim.

"It'd be best for us to keep our distance from the Port and stick to what the thieves demand. You are not in that clause, so any move we wish to make with them should be run through you. Though, I was told there's a cease fire between you?"

"We are not to interfere with each other's business," Fukuzawa clarified. "Should that happen, then the ceasefire stops. Acting as ambassador between your organizations would be enough to muddy that clause."

"But we're not interfering with them, are we President?" Atsushi asked, and Fukuzawa shook his head.

"We have chosen to side with their enemy, and despite our neutrality in this dispute, Port Mafia will not see it that way. Vongola is already breaking their treaty by being here, and should we aid them in any way, it will be seen as a move against the Port Mafia."

Tanizaki groaned. "This is getting complicated. So we can't help them, they can't talk to the Port, and they can't make _any_ moves against the thieves? What the hell are we allowed to do?!"

"It's a stalemate," Naomi mumbled.

Tsuna turned to Reborn, who had his face hidden beneath the shadows of his fedora. "Has Chrome gotten us anything useful?"

The baby grinned. "Finally using that brain of yours, stupid Tsuna." Reborn pulled out several folders from his teeny tiny suit, shocking the Agency that he was able to fit it in his person. "We have all the identities of the perpetrators, even their ring leader."

Gokudera slammed his hands triumphantly on the table. "Now that's what I'm talking about! Let's hit them hard stealth style."

Atsushi reached for one file and opened it to see a very familiar face. A slim young man with dark, messy hair and eyes so sharp they could kill despite the bored expression he wore them on. 

"F - Fyodor..." Atsushi laid out the contents of the folder on the table, making everyone uncomfortable at the mere sight of his figure on a picture. Kunikida broke his pencil as he recalled his failure during Fyodor's trial. "Are you saying… he's the one behind this?"

"He can't be," Yosano said. "We put him behind bars months before the Book was taken."

"Fyodor had a fail safe," Dazai said. "If he lost and got captured, a unit of his organization would enact this plan. I suspect he also had another plan in mind should we have succeeded, but failed to capture him."

"Wasn't he… working with the Guild to get the Book back then too?" Atsushi said.

Dazai nodded. Whether he knew where it really was or not, his goal hasn't changed. He wants the power for himself, and while doing so, burn Yokohama in the process."

Gokudera clicked his tongue. "That would explain Hibari's shit. They knew we were snooping around, so they made it look like we killed all those people. Making the Port angry at us, and start a war. It's a _fucking_ message to hold us hostages to their plan."

Dazai shrugged, trying to lighten the mood. "Pretty much, unfortunately."

"We can't change what already happened," Yamamoto said. "They know we're here, and that we broke a rule. Port paid for our mistake, and Hibari got hurt. As much as I hate to play their stupid game, there's no moves left for us." He then turned to Dazai, "But not you."

Kunikida pinched the bridge of his nose. "But we're also stuck in a stalemate, if we help you, Port Mafia will take offense to it."

"You've been awfully quiet, Decimo," Reborn suddenly said amidst their discussion, and Tsuna jumped.

"We-well everyone has valid points, and I really have nothing else to add. Th-This is a really delicate issue, and well - I think we should –" Reborn slapped the back of Tsuna's head with a folded piece of newspaper he pulled out of nowhere. Tsuna gripped his head and cried out Reborn's name.

"Think, stupid Tsuna. You have all the cards. Now stop being a baby and act like the Boss."

Atsushi watched Tsuna's eyes fall down to his lap, ashamed that he was just scolded by a three feet tall toddler. From the corner of his eye, Atsushi caught Dazai eyeing his brother earnestly. Then it hit him, Dazai, the most strategic mind in the room, hadn't come up with a plan of action yet, when he normally would at this time already. 

He wanted to see what Tsuna could do, or was willing to do.

"This would be selfish of me to ask, Fukuzawa-dono, but…" Tsuna started. "Would you please, on behalf of Vongola, ask Mori-san for their cooperation? We will give them anything in return, as long as it is within the confines of their past agreement with Nono."

Fukuzawa opened his eyes, keeping his gaze in line with Tsuna's own, which seemed sharper than they were a second before. "He will require compensation from both of us." He briefly turned to Yosano, who missed his unexpected gaze. "Should he ask for what I fear he would, then I apologize in advance. I may not come to an agreement with him."

"I don't know Mori-san that well," Tsuna said, "but I hope he understands the threat is beyond any of our territorial or working boundaries for any of our past contracts to make sense."

Dazai grinned. "You can leave that to me, Tsu-chan. What do we do about their demands?"

"We'll play along. For as long as you need, and then -" Tsuna looked at Atsushi, his chocolate colored eyes slowly tickled with a hint of red-orange the longer they stared at each other. The young Mafia boss' mouth moved, detailing their plan, down to the last detail.

Everything rests on him. _Find It_ , the tiger growled.

 _Follow the Lion._ Trust in the plan, it meant to say.

 _Take it Back._ Atsushi promised himself, and everyone else in the room, he'll get the Book back. He'll keep Yokohama safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually forget how Atsushi is connected to the Book. I only remember that he leads the way and as of writing this, BSD hasn't given me anything new so, fuck it. Own lore it is. As for the real culprit… It was Fyodor all along! Even behind bars, this guy is a piece of shit. Sorry for the game plan tease. I would've written it in detail but I thought it's more fun to have you readers try your luck on guessing. It's reader participation time! 
> 
> ADA/Vongola has to retrieve the Book, but there's complications. 
> 
> *Vongola cannot meet with Port Mafia.  
> *Vongola isn't allowed to search for the Book.  
> *The list of demands (attacking 20 Port Mafia subsidiaries) must be completed within the deadline.
> 
> Riddled in this chapter are what ADA and Port Mafia can do. Can you piece together what Tsuna has in mind? I really got no prizes for your participation here, only cookies and bragging rights. Haha. See you next chapter!!


End file.
